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HARTINGTON – Cedar County Transit will be asking Knox County to pay more for its services in 2025.
The Hartington-based transit system started offering rides 30 miles into neighboring Knox County in 2022. Since that time, riders have increased exponentially and the fees charged to Knox County to provide the service have also increased over time.
For 2022-23, Knox County paid for transit services at the rate of $2,000 per month, increasing to $2,100 last year. Cedar County Transit proposes charging $2,500 per month going into 2025.
Transit Manager Nikki Pinkelman has yet to make the 20 percent increase request to the Knox County Board of Supervisors, but she said the data supports the increase in fees with an increase in riders of 15-24 percent since last year.
In 2023, Knox County’s self-paying and agency- sponsored riders totaled 1,438 with 35,624 trip miles. In 2024, Knox County’s portion of riders increased to 1,771 with 44,458 miles. Those 2024 numbers reflect data through November, Pinkelman said.
Most of the riders travel to Yankton, S.D., or Norfolk, she said.
The data was presented to the Cedar County Board of Commissioners at its last meeting and the board gave their approval to move forward in making the Knox County funding request.
“They have the numbers so they can look at it prior to signing the contract,” she said.
Magnet zoning issue
Three lawyers and the Cedar County Board of Commissioners came together to talk through a potential zoning issue in Magnet with no immediate resolution and the issue tabled until the new year.
At issue is a former church building which the owner would like to sell as a residence, or possibly apartments. The assessor’s office lists the building as zoned commercial. Historically, Cedar County has provided zoning for the county’s villages, however, its unknown if there’s an official interlocal agreement to provide those services, said Zoning Administrator Tim Gobel.
“It’s always kind of been done, the zoning and building permits for them,” he said. “I should look at the original resolution that adopted our zoning regs, wherever that is, and see if it’s in writing there. If it’s not, it probably doesn’t exist. That’s kind of where I stand.”
Typically, the county’s zoning board makes a zoning recommendation and the village board has the final say.
If nothing can be found in writing, zoning for the former Magnet church building is left up to the village board, said County Attorney Ron Temple.
“It’s still leaving us in limbo,” said Attorney Hanna Knox-Jensen, Center, who represents Greg McQuay, Magnet, who owns the former church building. “He’s stuck right now. Without being able to go through Cedar County to re-zone, he’s just stuck with being told it’s commercial,” Ryan Cwach, Yankton, S.D., who represents the Village of Magnet, said he’s unsure of how the board would want to handle the zoning if it was left up to them.
“I haven’t spoken to them about how they would handle that hypothetical,” he said.
Gobel will research any written documentation of a zoning agreement and the board will take up the matter again at its first meeting of the new year.
Tire recycling
Cedar County is making plans for a tire collection next summer after the county was awarded a $165,000 tire recyling grant from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy.
For the project, Cedar County will accept tires over a two-day timeframe. The collection would be open to those residing in Dixon and Knox counties, with a total limit of 1,000 tons collected.
Nearly all of the grant will be used to haul the tires to Champlin Tire Recycling in Concordia, Kan., for repurposing.
More details will be released when a date is set, said County Clerk Jessica Schmit.
Transit Manager Nikki Pinkelman has yet to make the 20 percent increase request to the Knox County Board of Supervisors, but she said the data supports the increase in fees with an increase in riders of 15-24 percent since last year.
