Lincoln to move forward with lease agreement for Safety Complex

[February 13, 2015]  LINCOLN - At the Tuesday night workshop meeting of the Lincoln City Council, City Administrator Clay Johnson discussed the lease agreement the city has with Logan County for space it occupies at the Logan County Safety Complex.

This year the Logan County Board issued a request for a renewal of the annual lease agreement with a rent increase that at first seemed a little far-fetched to city aldermen. The new lease agreement called for the city of Lincoln to pay just under $3,000 per month.

Since January of 2013 the city has paid $2512 per month for the space occupied by the city police department. Johnson explained that the lease at that time called for an annual increase according to the national CPI or Consumer Price Index. However, that part of the agreement fell through the cracks, and the city never paid the increase.

Johnson said that talking with the county, the two parties had agreed that instead of worrying about what had not been paid, they would move forward with a new lease agreement. The agreed upon amount per month would be $2740 per month through the end of 2016.

With no further discussion, the item was placed on the Consent Agenda for this Tuesday February 17th. The voting session will be moved to Tuesday due to the Monday President’s Day holiday.

The city has determined that the current accommodations at the safety complex are not sufficient for the needs of the city police department.

There is also an issue with the city fire department, in that, with today's larger apparatuses, it has outgrown the space it currently occupies.

A firm has been hired to investigate properties in Lincoln that would be suitable for a new complex for the city. The firm has been instructed to consider properties suitable for each department. They are to look at properties for either a combined safety complex or singular departments, including looking at existing structures that could be refurbished, or vacant lands where new structures could be built.

The city also has earmarked a portion of the city utility tax that can be used to finance reconstruction of an existing location or construction of a new location for each or both departments.

However, to date, there are no definite plans to move out of the Safety Complex.

[Nila Smith]

Past related article
 
City balks at rent increase for safety complex