Small Town Leaders Need to Grow Up

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doubt anybody will mistake Highway two seventy five west of
Elcorn with California's drive along the Pacific Ocean, where cliffs, waterfalls,
and coastal sunsets are a visual feast. The two seventy
five drive delivers mobile home parks, sheet metal quantsets, and
a truck stop. But there's a lot going on behind
all of that. You're entering Nebraska's fastest growing community, replete

(00:23):
with some of the most expensive residential real estate between
Chicago and Denver. Valley yep, little riverburg that predates the
state by three years. Valley's first one point fifty is
best known for floods and newdest colonies, today becoming a
refuge for some of Omaha's regal gentry. About one hundred

(00:44):
years ago, Nebraska's construction barrens discovered Valley's minerals and started
mining them, creating big lakes throw in the river's high
water table. Shrewd developers envisioned multimillion dollar homes lining sandy
beaches on the water by just digging down a bit.
But unlike most Nebraska lakes, man made bathtubs to hold

(01:06):
water for summer irrigators, the valley Lakes, blue Water, Mallard Landing,
Valley Shores, Ginger Cove are clear, clean and packed with bluegill,
croppie catfish, and walleye, which explains why you can't touch
a blue water home on the lake for under seven
figures these days, and some start with a three even

(01:26):
fair acres Omaha's old money Conclave can't match that. In
the last twenty five years, Valley's property value has grown
from one hundred and ten million to seven hundred and
fifty million. But while the growing pains get worse, the
town's leaders behave like the steering committee for the Bethel
Baptist Church Summer Bizaar. In the last year, Valley's residents

(01:51):
have put up with a police chief forced to resign
from his conduct. Internal whistleblowers contend his replacement occasionally disappears
in the early afternoon and is unreachable. The six figure
city administrator has drawn similar questions about his performance both
collect full time wages and benefits. City council members who

(02:11):
address these findings are sued over discrimination or falsely cited
for violating open meetings laws. Initially, the discrimination suit hosted
by former state Senator Justin Wayne sought four million in
damages that is now down to twenty thousand. The County
Attorney's office says, we don't have time for this. And

(02:33):
then there's the brown water. About once a month, valiers
turn on the faucet and it looks like folgers. The
eighty year old system needs replacing, but it's worse now
because each summer morning the sprinklers to irrigate the manicured
lawns on the lakes come on. The water pressure dislodges
built up iron and manganese in the old pipes, which

(02:54):
comes out through the faucets. This year, with no public discussion,
a delivery fee was assessed to anybody on the lakes
that grows mistrust. But the thing that really bugs the
folks is Sonic, not the drive in the dog, a
forty four thousand dollars fully trained Belgian Malanoy police service dog.

(03:16):
He was with the fired Chief Mayor Cindy Grove, then
placed and left Sonic in a training kennel for four months.
Couldn't or didn't try to find another officer or another jurisdiction.
Bennington Waterloo opd the county sheriff to take and work
Sonic dog lost twenty five pounds injured himself in confinement.

(03:36):
Town was outraged. Issue went viral. City council finally voted
this past winter to let the fired police chief have
the dog for one dollar forty four thousand, and kennel
fees are now floating in the brown water. There is
a recall petition circulating to remove Mayor Grove and Council
President John Batcher. Petitioner's grouse about transparency. It's a two

(04:00):
cozy relationship with the on contract city attorney. She burned
a lot of political capital on the dog and trying
to push through an ill fated trailer park and air
boat launch development. In twenty twenty three class action lawsuits
and the NRD shut that down. At council meetings, parliamentary
procedure comes and goes. Agenda items normally reserved for closed

(04:24):
sessions sometimes make the public portion. Now Grove and her
backers are soiling city council members they believe are behind
the recall by feeding half baked information to the Douglas
County Gazette. Of course, all this laundry is hanging on
lines in Valley through Facebook pages and angry social media posts.
Quite unbecoming of important people. They need quit calling lawyers,

(04:47):
put their petty grievances aside, and act like the important
people they are. It's the fastest growing community in the state.
Bout time the elected officials keep up