Broken Bow pursues $250,000 state grant to study floodplain; council may hold special meeting

Deputy Clerk Jacob Holcomb, speaking as one of the city’s flood‑plain administrators, told the Broken Bow City Council on April 8 that the City is pursuing a $250,000 State of Nebraska grant to fund a flood‑plain scoping project.

Holcomb said the grant would pay for a contractor to analyze the local floodplain and recommend flood‑control structures intended to reduce the mapped floodplain and, if feasible, remove barriers that currently limit where houses and businesses may be built. The grant requires a 25% local match, which Holcomb calculated as $62,500. Because the application deadline is tight, staff said they are considering a special council meeting on Thursday to finalize the city's application and any matching‑fund commitment.

City Administrator David Schmidt and staff did not present detailed engineering proposals or cost estimates for construction at this meeting; Holcomb framed the item as a scoping and analysis phase to identify options. The transcript records no formal council vote on committing matching funds; staff indicated further discussion would occur at the potential special meeting.

During public comment earlier in the meeting, resident Tom Ecker raised concerns about affordable housing and the demolition of houses he said still had potential. Administrator Schmidt clarified that the specific house Ecker mentioned had been demolished by the property owner.

Next steps cited by staff are to convene a special meeting if necessary to meet the grant deadline and to return to the council with the contractor scope and any formal matching‑fund request if the city proceeds with the application.