Missel shares his thoughts and concerns

Bob Missel became chairman of the Dodge County Board of Supervisors one year ago. Since then, he has guided county government with the certainty of a businessman.

The Fremont Tribune recently sat down with Missel to talk about the past year, the future and his concerns.

Tribune: What do you see as the biggest accomplishment for Dodge County in 2008?

Missel: Probably one of our biggest accomplishments as a board was to bring all the players to the table to reach common ground on the alignment issue of U.S. Highway 30. That’s something that’s been out there for a long, long time.

One of the biggest parts of our budget is the roads. You’re talking about probably one of the biggest major arteries through the county. It’s an important run, that east-west road. To move closer to having it a four-lane highway rather than two lanes not only makes it better for citizens of the county, but will definitely be a beacon to developers.

Another one that would have to be right there with it would be the paving of the Herman-Scribner Road. To the people in that part of the county, it’s a God send to have that finally opened up and have that connection between Washington County and Dodge County with a paved road.

Tribune: What’s the benefit to Dodge County to widen U.S. Highway 30 like that?

Missel: One of the biggest benefits is the potential for greater economic development, building a bigger tax base.

Tribune: Why would widening U.S. 30 improve economic development?

Missel: Whenever you improve access, you improve the likelihood of bringing in more industry, more businesses.

Tribune: Looking ahead, what do you consider to be the top priority in 2009?

Missel: To not let the ball drop on this Highway 30 issue and to continue to have a relationship with the Nebraska Department of Roads — keep the lines open and make sure that we’re good stewards to work with those folks and with Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers is just as big of a player as the Department of Roads on this. One of the things that we want to achieve with this is the development of a better diking system on the western part of Fremont and taking a lot of property there out of the flood plain. We were talking about economic development. You can imagine what taking a big chunk of real estate out of the flood plain does.

We are communicating with NDOR, and they are telling us that this is going to happen.

Tribune: When you consider the biggest challenge of 2008, how can that be turned into an asset for 2009?

Missel: I wish I could say we’d have the road done in 2009, but that’s not a reality. I think the reality is that it’s not going to be in 2009, not going to be in 2010. I think it will be at least three or four years before we see any signs of building. It could be longer. A lot is going to depend on tax revenue dollars. We know we are facing a potential deep recession in 2009. What’s that going to mean funding? When you building a road like that it’s a partnership of federal funding, state funding and local funding.

Tribune: What are the top two or three areas that need improvement in 2009? What do you think would be the best way to make those improvements?

Missel: I’ll start by saying that we are very fortunate in Dodge County. We have a wonderful infrastructure of individuals who are dedicated to their jobs, and as chairman of the board, I recognize that more than ever. With that said, areas that will continue to need work is our road system. We have a lot of gravel roads in the county. They need a lot of ongoing maintenance all the time.

We have bridges that are aging. It’s nowhere near the seriousness in other counties. Some other counties have had to close hundreds of bridges. The situation there is grim, particularly in western Nebraska because they don’t have the financial resources to replace them. We’re pretty fortunate in that regard. Alan Doll is focus on a number of bridges that will be repaired and replaced. We’re even looking at alternatives to bridges. Alan has brought a lot of good things to the table. He brought the new application of hard top surface on County Road 25. I think people there are satisfied with the end result. That road had a life of its own, and it took time to develop.

Other areas are areas like mental health. I think that’s going to be a big issue for county government. The Spring Center, which is the crisis stabilization center in Omaha, is closing. Those beds have served Dodge County, particularly Dodge County law enforcement. Now, they’re having to look for other sources. Lasting Hope Recovery Center has opened, but that’s still in the building stages. We hope that it can replace what the Spring Center offered. We’re watching how that develops.

Tribune: With the problems that have developed at the Dodge County Jail over the past couple of years with a string of suicides that led to a grand jury investigation and a study by an outside corrections expert, are you satisfied that the problems there have been solved?

Missel: Very satisfied. I have all the confidence in director (Doug) Campbell. (Consultant) Gary Bowker came in and did the study. He reassured our jail standards committee that things were actually running on a very efficient level.

However, he did work through with Doug and did make some changes to the program that were positive. With the instance of suicides in the jail, it’s a very unfortunate scenario. We’ve made a number of changes to the facility that should address that issue. One of them was to replace all of the vent caps in the facility. These new plates are far superior. The reality is that if somebody really wants to take their life, it’s really hard to stop them. But our series of checks and balances is much better than it was. We are still addressing the issue of improving overall surveillance in the facility. We’re adding a number of cameras into the facility, which is requiring new hardware, including a commercial type DVR system. That would allow Doug to do his job better because they’ll be able to view more areas of the jail and go back to look at a historical event. If we did find ourselves in a grand jury situation like we were before, it would be a much better scenario if we have better data to back up what we’re talking about.