Predator Control Board asks Lusk to reconsider large hangar lease hike

Shannon Bruegger, representing the Niobrara County Predator Control Board, asked the council to reconsider a proposed increase in the board's hangar lease from $100 annually to $1,200. Bruegger told the council the hangar — a 40-by-80 pad built in the 1960s — stores traps, supplies and an aircraft used for predator-control work and contributes to airport activity that can leverage state and federal funding. She said the Predator Board's yearly budget is about $245,000–$248,000 and that the timing of the increase is problematic because the board's fiscal-year budget (July–June) had already been submitted.