A Minute With The Mayor, Andy Fuston

September 20, 2016 1 Comment


By Lyons Mayor, Andy Fuston

Football and volleyball season is finally here! Nebraska is off to a great start. What a win Saturday against Oregon! The Wolverines hard work isn’t necessarily reflected in the win/loss column but it takes time to get use to integrating two teams under one scheme and then playing in a new division. They had a nice win on Friday. Congratulations to them. The Nebraska volleyball team keeps on rolling like last year and the lady Wolverines are making strides as well. Change is never easy and combining high school sports comes with its own set of challenges.   We are very fortunate to have great coaches and teachers to help ease that transition, not to mention a student body second to none!

Speaking of transitions, the council will have a new council member come January. With the election coming up in November, Lana won’t be on the ballot for the first time in twelve years. She will definitely be missed but with change comes opportunity. Lyons has been fortunate to have had a city council that wants nothing but success for the community. When you all want what is best for your community it makes it pretty easy to do the right things and make the right decisions. So make sure you come out and vote in November. It is the first step in making your community government a success.

As for the September council meeting, we approved the budget for the 2016/2017 fiscal year. On the positive side, our valuation dropped by over $500,000.00. This lowered some property tax. On the negative side, valuation dropped by $500,000.00. This means we have less money to work with in our general fund for the upcoming year because we will have less tax revenue. It is a double edge sword.   We will have to tighten the city belt a little more and prioritize a little harder to keep our fiscal ship sailing. As you saw in last week’s paper the city approved some work to be completed on the exterior of the community center and library. Hopefully that will help with some water issues we’ve had on the south side of the community building. I would much rather have the maintenance done now than wait until it becomes really expensive to fix. We have asked the library foundation to assist with the cost of library repairs. The city was asked about running electrical and water to the property just south of the city dump. We won’t have to re-zone that property so we will be running those utilities out there. The council approved the contract to have the water tank issues taken care of. We gave and little and so did the water tower company on who was responsible for paying for what. Now we just need to get on the list so they can get us scheduled to do the work. Probably will be next spring sometime. Northeast Economic Development will be at our next meeting to discuss different options for the street lighting project. I’m still hopeful we can find some financial assistance to help us with project. Part of the meeting was spent discussing the old bowling alley. We have gotten a bid for demolishing it. Unfortunately it looks like the city is not going to have any recourse but to condemn the building. We are in the process of doing that. What it means is that we will end up being on the hook for raising it. It is so very frustrating but the alternative is to let it rot and fall in by itself, probably damaging the adjoining building. I wish there was something else we could do but I’m afraid our back is up against the wall again.

I can’t think of much less happening at the moment. The Ladies Night Out part was really enjoyable. I know this only because I helped to bar tend! Everybody really seemed to enjoy the evening. We’ve got the Community Club golf outing this coming Sunday so if you haven’t signed up you better get to calling! Take care, enjoy the fall weather and we’ll talk to you soon.

 

 

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A Minute with Lyons Mayor Andy Fuston

March 23, 2016 Leave a comment


 

A Minute with the Mayor by Lyons Mayor Andy Fuston

March 2016

Spring has sprung! The grass is turning green! The girls’ basketball team made our school and community proud by going to the state basketball tournament for the first time in school history. And to top it all off the school and their community supporters won the spirit award for the school with the best representation and attitude out of all the D-2 school systems lucky enough to be part of the championship tournament. Enough said!!! I couldn’t help but feel a real sense of pride when I heard about the spirit award. It was thrilling enough to have the girls make the tournament but to receive the spirit award was icing on the cake. It really shouldn’t have surprised me that much however. This was just another example of Lyons (and Decatur) pulling together and being greater than the sum of its parts. It was another opportunity for our community to shine and we did. The whole experience should make you proud, whether a member of the Lyons-Decatur school family or part of the community as a whole. Thank you to Rex and the girl’s team for being another example of what being part of our small community is really all about!

Many of the council meeting agenda items have already been discussed in the paper so I won’t bore you with going back through them. A couple of highlights though I do want to hit upon. The first of which is the Veteran’s Memorial located by the library. Due to the many wonderful and generous donations the VFW has received, construction on the new memorial has begun. When completed, it is going to look amazing and be a true testament to sacrifice our men and women have made keeping our country safe. It will be a beautiful addition to our Main Street. We are in the process of refinancing our wastewater SRF loan. Should save the tax payers about $50,000 over the course of the loan from what we pay now. The council also spoke with a representative of EIA, our water tower builder, about some on-going issues we’ve been having with the tank. I’m hopeful we’ve come up with an action and maintenance plan that will take care of these problems. The council wants to make sure we are getting what was promised the city when EIA was courting the city for our business. Mark your calendar for Saturday, April 9th. That is town clean-up day. Here’s your opportunity to throw out that stuff you really didn’t know what to do with. Take advantage of this opportunity. It only rolls around once a year. We’re still waiting to hear on our grant proposal for the street lighting project. These things take time so we will continue to wait. Financially, the city is right in line with the budget at the five month mark. I know replacement of the second police car was brought up in the paper. It is something we are thinking about. We will have more information at the April council meeting about replacement costs. We are still in need of lifeguards and pool managers. If you are interested, please apply at the city office. The council is also working on providing pool guest with clearer expectations of how we can make the pool a fun and safe experience for everyone. Last year was a new experience for everyone with regards to the new pool and what rules and regulations needed to be in place. It was difficult on patrons and on life guards at times because we didn’t have a clear set of expectations for folks to follow. I hoping with more guidance this year, it won’t be as challenging or confusing.

I’ll I think I’ve been down through the list of things I wanted to talk about. Be looking for information about the Community Club’s Stein, Wine and Swine event coming up on April 1st. You’ll want to attend it you can! Enjoy the nice weather. We’ll talk to you soon.

Mayor Andy Fuston

Mayor Andy Fuston

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A Minute with the Lyons Mayor

November 18, 2015 Leave a comment


A Minute with the Mayor

November 2015

Welcome to back to standard daylight time! Hopefully you are used to it being dark by 6pm. It’s certainly not the easiest thing to get used too. I’m ready for bed by 9pm!

The November council meeting was a fairly light one thus I was home in time to be in bed by nine! Our top agenda item was approval of the city’s health insurance plan. After looking at our options, the council decided to change plans that will actually save the city over thirty thousand dollars this coming year. Health care costs, as everyone knows, continues to rise and the city isn’t immune to the squeeze those increased premiums puts on the city’s budget. The council is working to find a balance between the city’s responsibility to its employees and fiscal responsibility to the tax payer. We will continue to evaluate our healthcare coverage to make sure we are meeting employee needs and getting the entire bang for our buck that we can.

We have a plan for the south road at Brink Park to secure it. We are going to rework and pack the bank. We will then add concrete rip rap along the shore line of the lagoon to stabilize the bank. This should help prevent anymore eroding from occurring long that drive in that area. We were still having some water leaking above a couple of big windows in the community center. We had the roof guys out and we hope they’ve fixed the areas on the roof that had been leaking. Our new baler should be here the first week in December. It will help us be more versatile with our recycling efforts. We are still waiting on the $87,000 reimbursement from the grant we were awarded.   All the “Ts” are crossed and the “Is” are dotted so that money should be coming sometime soon.

I know there are a lot of questions and concerns swirling around Logan Valley Manor.  There is still a lot of legal wrangling going on between the owners and creditors. Not sure when all of that will be cleared up. Until that time, not much that can be done about its future. The city council did decide to turn the electrical and heat on to make sure we don’t have ruptured pipes over the winter. I am optimistic that good things are in store for Logan Valley Manor. We just want to make sure the weather doesn’t make things worth there.

Burt County passed a 2% lodging tax which will affect the camp ground. Rates were adjusted slightly to help cover that tax increase. On a good note, we finally got the final reimbursement from the $375,000 community center grant. The $187,500 will help replenish the city coffers that were spent on the project to begin with. Good news indeed. We continue to wait to hear on the street lighting grant we applied for. We are hopeful we will hear from them by the end of the year.

If you missed the grand opening of the Main Street Theater, you missed a really fun evening. It’s just amazing to me when the front of that building comes slowly down to the sidewalk and street. What a feat of ingenuity! Looking at the building you would never know there wasn’t a building behind it. Bill Hedges movie on the history of Lyons that premiered was exceptional. I thought I was watching a PBS special. Looking at where Lyons has been and how it came to be what it is today inspired me to keep working to make Lyons a better place. It made me realize that the people of Lyons may come and go but the spirit of what Lyons is continues throughout the generations. Thanks to everyone who has made these projects possible. You’ve helped make Lyons an even cooler place to live!

Finally on a personal note, I just want to give a shout out to my dad, Ron, who turned 75 on November 17th! I know my wife and my mother won’t give him all the credit for making me who I am today but he sure deserves a lot of it! I have been so blessed to have been raised by a man who cares so deeply for his family. I couldn’t have asked for a better dad to mentor, counsel, teach, and advise me throughout my life. I am proud to be called Ron Fuston’s son! Happy Birthday dad! Here’s to many, many more!

That’s all I have for now. Enjoy the crisp fall weather. Good luck getting all those leaves raked up! I know I’ll need it. Take care and talk to you soon.

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A Minute With the Mayor

February 3, 2015 Leave a comment


Happy 2015! Hope the New Year has started off well for you. Hard to believe Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Although the calendar seems to be going by rather quickly, the winter months are usually the slower part of the year for things going on with the city. That means there hasn’t been a whole lot to update you on lately. But because it has been a while since we last spoke, I thought I could bring you up to speed on a couple of things.

The community center is taking shape. We finally have something that you can see from the outside. What do you think of those big, beautiful windows on the east side of the building! You can also see what the front of the building windows are going to look like with the windows to the west of the main entrance. It really gives the community center a modern feel; from the inside and outside. The rest is moving a little slow but progress is being made. The big steel beam is in place where the interior divider wall once stood. It will support the new retractable partition wall that will be installed. The old concrete floor in the fire hall was removed and with new poured level. The new bathrooms and coat room are framed and ready for drywall. The new heating and cooling systems are installed.   We are at that point in construction where you really want to see the finished product now! I can’t wait for all of you to see it.

As it was reported in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago, the city is looking at some funding opportunities so we can keep moving forward with new city projects. Tax Increment Financing or T.I.F. allows a city to take future tax money it would receive from the increase in property evaluation of new construction and lump several years’ worth to use now on certain types of municipal projects. Say someone in town buildings a new building or adds on to an existing building. The tax revenue the city would receive over the next fifteen years from the increased evaluation on that new construction or addition can be bundled into one lump sum. That money can then be used to improve the area around that construction, say infrastructure within an industrial park, or to make improvements within designated parts of town. It is difficult to explain but it is a mechanism we can use to help fund certain projects. We have been working with Burt County Economic Development to develop a plan. More progress on this should be made at the February council meeting.

Not much else is happening. The school is graciously giving some of the old school playground equipment to the city. The plan as of right now is to install it up at Burlington Park by the water tower to give kids some things to do up there. We are having some issues with the sewer plant grinder right now. We have to decide if we can afford to replace it now or wait to budget the amount. We had to do some repair work to one of the emergency generators. Water got in the oil pan and did something bad. I’m not mechanical enough to explain exactly what but it has or is getting fixed now. We are still working on submitting a grant for new lighting on Main Street. We need to gather more technical information before submitting our proposal. Finally I just wanted to say a big “thank you” to the city guys for getting the city streets cleaned off so quickly. It’s tough with all that snow and with the wind blowing. I really appreciate having a city crew does such a good job! That’s it for now. Take care and stay warm. We’ll talk soon.

Mayor Andy Fuston

Mayor Andy Fuston

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Swim For Free!

June 6, 2014 Leave a comment


“We are offering free admission for the pool season,” stated Lyons Mayor Andy Fuston. This will begin once the new pool opens, which should be around the middle of June.

“With the pool not being ready for a Memorial Day opening and the date now a moving target, we were talking about how best to handle season passes, etc.” said Fuston. “I just said maybe we should open the pool for free and everyone there thought that would be a great idea.” By everyone, the mayor is referring to the members of the city council. The decision was made at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

“I’m excited that we will be offering free admission to the pool this season; not only to say thank you to the community for their patience while the pool gets finished up but to also showcase what a great destination our pool can be for our local patrons as well as to those living in surrounding communities,” stated Fuston.

Yes, it will be a shorter season this year, “but a really fun and exciting one,” said Fuston.

New pool is getting closer to opening day! All Photos Credit of Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.

New pool is getting closer to opening day! All Photos Credit of Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.

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New Pool to Open in Mid-June

May 14, 2014 Leave a comment


The opening of the new Lyons pool has been delayed until mid-June, “The weather hasn’t cooperated much this winter and they need a couple more weeks to get everything completed,” stated Lyons Mayor Andy Fuston.

There are a few things that the mayor and city council asked to be taken care of.  “Standard construction things, it is normal. The decking is getting poured now and they are working on their punch list,” Fuston said. A punch list is items the city, engineer and general contractor pointed out to be fixed.

If the time frame changes for any reason, Kat Country Hub will report it.

 

The new Lyons Pool. Photo Credit/Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.

The new Lyons Pool. Photo Credit/Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.

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The construction of the new Lyons pool is moving along! All three photo credits/Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.

The construction of the new Lyons pool is moving along! All three photo credits/Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.

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