Kearney Volunteer Fire Department, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — The Kearney city council approved the purchase of two different fire apparatus as a part of their consent agenda during their meeting on Tuesday, June 10.
According to information submitted by the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends replacing fire apparatus that are over twenty-five years old.
Currently, KVFD’s engine and aerial are at or beyond their 25-years of service life. A committee of KVFD staff was formed to prepare and approve specifications for the purchase of a new Engine 32 and Truck 50.
After an evaluation, the committee felt that the best quote meeting their needs was from MacQueen Equipment in the amount of $1,265,000.00 for Engine 32 and $2,430,000.00 for Truck 50, the aerial apparatus.
“Unfortunately, the current build times for a fire apparatus have increased to 40-51 months. Therefore, a purchase agreement must be signed to initiate the building process,” per KVFD.
It was noted that the aerial apparatus is included in the fiscal year 2026 budget and the engine will be included in the fiscal year 2029 budget and will be funded by issuing Public Safety Equipment Tax Appreciation Bonds.
During the public hearing the city council considered an application to rezone a property east of Kearney to an agricultural zone to allow for resource extraction.
The applicant, Roger Harders for West Limited, LLC, was requesting that a 30 acres property located generally east of Cherry Ave. and south of E. 11th St. be rezoned from C-3, general commercial district to AG, agricultural.
The City of Kearney notes that the AG zoning district allows for multiple uses including, agricultural and civic uses, and limited residential, commercial and industrial uses.
It was also noted that the property had been rezoned from AG to C-3 in May 2023 to allow for future development, but since that date, the property has remained vacant. Harder was seeking to rezone part of the property back to AG while leaving the western part that is adjacent to Cherry Ave., around 10 acres, zoned C-3.
“Staff supported the rezoning request in 2023 as the Kearney East Expressway is considered a future commercial corridor and aligned with the Future Land Use (FLU) map. It is anticipated along this section of the expressway that there are commercial development potential options for retail, office, hospitality-type, or larger commercial developments, much like ones that already exist further north along the East Expressway,” per the City of Kearney.
The city staff also stated that this corridor has been slower to develop due to the lack of city services in the area such as water and sanitary sewer.
Harder noted that there has not been much interest in development at the moment but there has interest from another business in operating a gravel extraction operation at the site.
City staff said that a special use permit would be required for any potential gravel operation to begin work at the site.
The city staff’s finding of facts was that the proposed rezone is not compatible with the FLU designation, but if it is rezoned back to AG and not amending the FLU designation, it will protect the future intentions for development in the area.
It was noted that the Kearney Planning Commission had approved the rezone 6-1 and the city staff had provided no recommendation to the commission.
During the discussion among the council members, council member Randy Buschkoetter noted that the Cunningham’s on the Lake location had been built near a lake that had been created through resource extraction and that was part of the appeal of the location was it being near the water.
The council voted unanimously to approve the application for the rezone.
