Progress had stalled on Trotter’s Merna facility when the Planning Commission issued a stop-work order earlier this month because Trotter had not obtained a necessary permit.
    “In order to build something like that, they have to have a conditional use permit,” Larry Gibbens told the Chief.
    “This is a commercial business in an agriculture use zone,” he said.     The building site is located on the southwest edge of Merna on Highway 2. The property was previously owned by Safranek Equipment.
    Gibbens, who oversees the county’s zoning process, said Trotter was unaware that the county was responsible for zoning in and near communities without their own zoning regulations.
    “It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with their project,” he said. “It was the process, they had begun building without the permit.”
    Trotter said the facility will have a full-service convenience store with hot food items. The Sinclair branded station will also provide gasoline, diesel, off-road diesel and E85 and E10 ethanol blended fuel, he said.
    Trotter said the business will employee one or two full-time employees and about six part-time employees.
    During Tuesday’s hearing before the county board, Merna area resident Roger  Safranek spoke in support of Trotter’s project.
    “I think there’s a lot of community support for it,” Safranek told the board. “We have no gas in Merna and that’s a hardship for the community.  It will be good to get it going again.”
    In other business, the county board voted to modify its plans for a proposed Health and Human Services Building to be built in Broken Bow.
    The county had already collected bids for a 7,100-square foot building. A low bid of $981,000 had been offered by a consturction company of Lincoln, however, the bid expired Jan. 27, because it had not been approved by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
    In a conference call Tuesday, HHS representatives indicated that the project would have to be scaled back because of budget concerns at the state level. HHS presented drawings that proposed a 5,900-square foot building.
    “We’ve spent several thousand dollars and a lot of time and effort getting to the point were at today and at the last minue, we find out it’s wrong,” said Supervisor Larry Hickenbottom.
    The county board considered whether to have its engineering firm draw new plans for a reconfigured building. However, they expressed concern that, with the additional fees, the cost savings to the state would be minimal, and possibly not acceptable to the state.
    Instead, following the recommendation of architectural firm Joseph Hewgley & Associates, the board decided to proceed with the current plans, but lease less space to HHS.
    The supervisors also expressed concerns regarding the estimated cost to extend water and sewer to the site currently selected. Board Chairman Don Olson said the costs could be very expensive, but he had not been able to get an estimate from the Broken Bow Utilities Department.
    The site is located on the west edge of Broken Bow on Highway 2 on the south side of the highway. The land is part of a tract recently annexed into the city. It is owned by the Broken Bow Industrial Corporation and was offered for free to the county for the HHS building.
    Under the agreement with HHS, Custer County will provide a building with a 15-year lease to HHS. The lease payments will be determined by negotiating a percentage of the cost of construction of the building.