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Drama unfolded once again and the county attorney was called in for advice at a meeting of the Antelope County Commissioners at the Neligh courthouse last Tuesday, Oct. 1.

The final item on the agenda, taxpayer concerns/general comment/Regina Krebs, was moved up.

Krebs assists various county officials and subdivisions with budget preparation and, in her capacity as a certified public accountant, has conducted audits of public entities, including Antelope County in years past.

She introduced herself, stated she had not, nor would she, sign a recall petition and that she was not speaking for or against the issue. She began to address the board, holding up a postcard that was later identified as a campaign mailing related to the current recall election.

"Imagine my surprise when I received this in the mail," she said.

"Point of order, Mr. Chairman," Commissioner Allan Bentley interrupted. "Beings this is a polling place, and this is a recall issue, I don't know if we can discuss issues, as a board, regarding any kind of election-persuading anything on either side of this issue."

Chairman Tom Borer agreed and asked if County Attorney Joe Abler was available.

Abler arrived and was told by County Clerk Lisa Payne that Krebs was on the agenda to address "taxpayer concerns and general comments."

Abler questioned Krebs about her intended comments and examined the postcard.

"She wants to present figures that are on that postcard and where they came from," Payne said. "I didn't know how to put it on the agenda."

Krebs added, "And the underlying finances."

"I don't know where these figures came from," Abler said.

"I do," Krebs said. "And they are accurate."

Abler opined if there was no factual difference in the numbers, Krebs could discuss the budget. "I don't see why it even brings the recall into the picture, other than this postcard."

Bentley asked the attorney if the board could then discuss information Krebs presented.

"With the recall, no," Abler said.

"But the budgetary numbers, she can certainly state, it's even public record, she can certainly ask to come up and ask to go through the budget again with you. I'm understanding that's what she's doing."

"Probably 'clarifying' the numbers," Krebs replied.

Borer suggested the board "err on the side of safety," telling Krebs, "If you want to come back after the 15th, I think it's okay then."

Bentley agreed and offered to meet with Krebs to go over numbers outside the meeting, which she agreed to.

"Had it not been to the public though - it was sent to the public, it needs to be clarified," said Bethany Miller of Elgin from the audience. "I think it does, because it came from two of your board members that are supposed to be spreading factual statements and it was very inaccurate."

"I would beg to differ because this was not sent out by Antelope County board of commissioners," Abler said. "This is not a county document, at least I hope it is not. This is simply campaign material, whether...true or not, that is a question, but... that is not a question to this board or the county."

Abler again asked Krebs if the numbers on the postcard were accurate. She answered they were.

Payne also replied, "Those are from the 2019 budget and the 2014-2015 budget, they are not the current figures from 2019-2020 budget that was just approved."

Again, the attorney asked, "Are they accurate?"

"Yes," Krebs said.

Payne also answered again, "They are budgeted figures, not expenditures."

"If they are accurate, why are we discussing this?" Borer asked.

"That was my question. This card right here was not issued by county government or by this board. But like I said, she's a taxpayer, no different than anyone else who came in and said, 'hey I want to discuss this with the board.' The thing is this is not a board communication. It's political campaign stuff," Abler said. "I guess this board, if they want to, they can make a motion to table it until after the recall election."

Krebs was asked if she would be alright with that suggestion. She agreed.

A Bentley motion to table the matter was seconded by Commissioner Dean Smith and carried with yes votes by all five county commissioners.

Commissioner Charlie Henery suggested looking into who sent the postcard and if it followed legal guidelines.

"Don't you have to represent who you're representing when you do something like that Joe?" he asked.

After Abler said he would have to check, Henery said, "Maybe you should do that and see if that was sent out properly anyway."

The attorney replied, "That's beside the fact."

Although she did not dispute the numbers on the campaign postcard, before she left the table, Krebs told the commissioners, "I will be back to discuss the numbers and how they pertain to the county and moving forward because some of the numbers on there were shocking and I want to get the board's opinion on how they want to move forward."

Andrew Butler, deputy secretary of state for elections, confirmed the county courthouse is considered a polling place, from time the ballots are mailed out until the date set for the election.

According to Butler, statute relevant to campaigning at polling sites is: "Neb. Rev. Stat. §32-1524: ")... (3) No person shall do any electioneering or circulate petitions within any polling place or any building designated for voters to cast ballots by the election commissioner or county clerk pursuant to the Election Act while the polling place or building is set up for voters to cast ballots or within two hundred feet of any such polling place or building except as otherwise provided in subsection (4) of this section.

"(4) Subject to any local ordinance, a person may display yard signs on private property within two hundred feet of a polling place or building designated for voters to cast ballots if the property is not under common ownership with the property on which the polling place or building is located. ..."

Along with Casey Dittrich, road superintendent, and Abler, the commissioners worked through a haul-route agreement with Keystone XL pipeline construction officials.

Robert Latimer and Dan Forbes of Omaha, with TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, presented a haul-route document to the commissioners, expecting them to sign it at the meeting.

"We have been going back and forth on our proposed haul-road agreement for Antelope County to support our project and provided what we've agreed is a finalized version of that agreement," Latimer said.

The first flag came from Smith, who asked about roads included on a map presented as Exhibit A. Smith said there were roads marked for potential use where no road existed.

The amount of a bond requirement also came into question. County officials agreed $5 million bond proposed was not enough.

"Exhibit A in TransCanada's hands is very premature," Dittrich said. "The biggest thing in the road-use agreement is the bond that we would have them hold, they've presented a road-use agreement with a $5 million bond on it, Thunderhead was $3 million. The Royal Road was not on the road-use agreement and cost Invenergy approximately $2.5 million. That was one small section of road that wasn't on the road use agreement.

"Their (TC Energy) current Exhibit A has almost every oiled road on it ...There is no way we can accept a road-use agreement with an unknown bond amount with this amount of oil... That is the one thing. We can hammer out every term and condition on this besides that... I went side by side and there's some verbiage that has changed both ways. I'm prepared to discuss that, I think Joe (Abler) probably is too, or at least give me some verification on any issues I have, but I don't think we can go forward, with this new map that is presented."

Smith asked how many miles of oil were included. Latimer was unable to answer.

"If you guys don't have that information, I don't know how we can go forward, with any kind of amount," Smith said.

Latimer asked for a number the county would accept. Borer suggested $50 million.

Discussion appeared to reach a stalemate, when Dittrich suggested taking 20 minutes to go through the agreement concerns, excluding bond amounts and a list of roads.

He said, "To give them a fair shake, ...(they) left here empty-handed several times. They've reached out to me. With the mix of FEMA and Thunderhead, I think in all fairness, we owe it to these guys to go through and discuss some of the issues I have with the road-use agreement because it may help shape Exhibit A.

"I don't want you to think I am dragging my feet up here to keep from discussing it, I think we have some talking points... I don't think there is any way we can proceed to sign a road-use agreement today, but I think this is the bread and butter and is going to sway the decision of Exhibit A."

Forbes asked, "How close do you want this map to be to be considered Exhibit A for the agreement?"

"Perfect will be close enough," Henery said.

"We want a map of the roads you are going to be on and not the roads you are not going to be on," Abler added. "The wind towers, they took a sand trail and made a nice road, but the thing is, now we have to maintain it. So, if you put a road through a swamp..."

Bentley said, "It has to be pretty close to perfect, I know Charlie was kind of joking..."

"I wasn't." Henery said.

Armed with revisions and a map sample from the Thunderhead project, Latimer concluded "Then we will go away and do our homework," adding, "The feedback we've heard from you directly and some of the examples you've shared here, this is really super helpful."

He also informed the local officials that TC Energy was in the process of arranging for a contractor yard and RV site at Plainview.

Other business undertaken by the commissioners included:

~Approval of an administrative plat brought to the table by Zoning Administrator Liz Doerr. The plat for a 5.24-acre tract, located about two miles northeast of Orchard on property owned by Menno and Rosella Miller, had been in the works for nearly a year. Doerr said they had applied for a building permit, but she had not issued one, due to lack of the platting. Building construction was completed without a permit;

~Approved the purchase of an 11-foot Road Groom, equipment that breaks up windrows of sod left on roadsides by motorgraders, returning gravel to the roadway. Smith said the company offered the purchase with a down payment of $2,500, with the balance of $12,900 due in the next fiscal year; and

~ Approved several permits, including a driveway access permit for John Thiele, between 830 and 831 roads on 513 Avenue, and underground permits for Elkhorn Rural Public Power District between sections 20 and 21 in T27 R8, about four miles southwest of Orchard, and Kevin Rittscher, between sections one and two in T24 R8, about six miles south of Clearwater.