City Renews Franchise Agreements With NPPD

The O'Neill City Council met on Monday evening for the April meeting with all council members present.

The agenda was short, with the council taking care of a Liquor application for Fox's. The council then conducted a Public Hearing for the rezoning request at 512 S. 7th from Residential to C-2 General Business.

The council then approved three requests for LB840 monies for improvements and signage.

The city then considered the signing of the real estate lease with TP&L. TP&L stores windmill blades on the land south of the recycling center and north of the dump owned by the city. The city reviewed with minor concerns regarding how long the road between the Recycling Center and the Landfill could be blocked by incoming blades by TP&L. City Attorney Boyd Strope said he would talk with TP&L  and put wording to the lease to avoid  potential problems with this.

The council then renewed the contracts between the City of O'Neill  and NPPD. The last time the contracts were renewed was in 1997. Britteny Koenig of NPPD gave a brief overview of the partnership between the City of O'Neill and NPPD. 

In 2022, $241,950.60 in gross revenue tax was paid to Holt County and NPPD collected and remitted $632,370.87 in lease payment and $61,342.06 in sales tax to O'Neill in the same period. Energy efficiency incentives and benefits are available to everyone. In 2022, $8,760.60 incentives were received by customers in O'Neill.

NPPD works with local telecommunication and fiber providers to enhance connectivity in communities and rural areas. NPPD has set a carbon "net-zero" goal by 2050 to explore increased development of wind and solar resources, alternative fuels including hydrogen and biofuels, energy storage, carbon sequestration, and small modular nuclear reactors. At this time, NPPD is more than 56 percent carbon-free.

Koenig also announced that NPPD would add an EV charging station at Cubby's. She said due to the closeness of restaurants and motels, they felt this was an excellent place to put the station.

After approving to let out for hay bids the city approved the bills and adjourned for the evening.

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