County board adopts Stevens Creek plan

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BY MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star

The Lancaster County Board followed the Lincoln City Council's lead and adopted the Stevens Creek Watershed Master Plan on Tuesday.

The council had approved the plan, which took two years to develop and addresses flood-control and water-quality issues in the 55-square-mile Stevens Creek area generally east of Lincoln, on Monday night. The council also added a couple of amendments dealing with the location of a future trunk sewer line.

On Tuesday, county commissioners unanimously approved the plan as amended by the council, though not before expressing some concerns.

Commissioner Bernie Heier wondered whether the plan's requirement for each development to have sediment forebays to slow down runoff and remove pollutants would apply to acreages.

Nicole Fleck-Tooze of the city's Public Works &Utilities Department said the main goal of the plan was to address urban development, and that "we'll need to bring forward some more specific drainage criteria" to address all uses.

Commissioner Ray Stevens questioned Fleck-Tooze on why the plan doesn't address existing land owners, saying it looked like they were getting a free ride.

Fleck-Tooze reiterated that the plan mostly addresses urban development rather than existing agricultural and residential uses.

While she acknowledged the validity of his point, she responded, "At some point you always adopt a higher standard the people there before didn't have to meet."

Despite asking several pointed questions, Stevens, before voting, called the Stevens Creek plan "in the best long-term interest of Lancaster County."

Even though the plan has been adopted, many parts still need to be finalized and the requirements will not go into effect for at least several months, Fleck-Tooze said.

State Fair match

In other action Tuesday, commissioners approved a resolution to contribute up to $27,000 to help the city meet its matching requirement for the State Fair to receive lottery funds for the first quarter of 2005.

Under the requirements of Amendment 4, which voters passed last November, Lincoln must contribute 10 percent to whatever the fair receives each quarter.

The first installment of the money will be coming in soon and has been estimated at $534,760, meaning the city must come up with $53,476.

The county's half share, which commissioners have stressed is not required of them and is not a long-term commitment, will come out of the county's keno fund.

Heier said he wished there was more information about how the money would be spent. But Stevens said that it has only been five months since the amendment was approved and the fair has a new director, so he sees nothing wrong with giving fair officials more time to formulate a plan for how to spend the money.

"I'm willing to give them a little bit of a rope to come up with a plan," Stevens said.

Last week, fair Executive Director Richard Bjorklund, who attended Tuesday's meeting, said the first installment of lottery money would be used for things such as painting, maintenance, enhancing the Kidz Zone and adding misting stations.

Decisions on longer-term uses for the money are 6 to 8 months away, he said.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.