Photo by Terri Davis graphics Construction chaos on So. Jeffers/U.S. Highway 83.

Photo by George Lauby The Fairfield Inn on So. River Road

Photo by George Lauby Working on a new Walgreens, Philip and Jeffers/Dewey.

Photo by George Lauby Looking south from the So. Platte River, at what will become an extension of Buffalo Bill Ave.

Photo by George Lauby Clearing through the So. Platte River for Buffalo Bill Ave.

Photo by George Lauby Roped off area for new So. Cottonwood stip mall, Cottonwood and Philip.

Photo by George Lauby Working on Love's Travel Center, I-80 and Newberry.

Photo by George Lauby A parking lot at E and Jeffers, for dentist Barrett Klemm.

Construction crews are building better roads, a new hotel, a new truck stop and soon – a county jail and sheriff’s office, all in North Platte.

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The combined value of the projects approaches $35 million, which will fuel the Lincoln County economy. More jobs mean more money will be spent in stores, restaurants and homes.

But, there are dark signs – foreclosed real estate; property tax protests; layoffs and empty rail cars parked at Bailey Yard.

County property tax protests

The owners of 457 parcels of property in Lincoln County think their taxes are too high. They filed a protest during June with the Lincoln County Clerk.

That’s a 33 percent increase.

A year ago there were 308 protests.

Most protests are for residential and agricultural land, County Assessor Mary Ann Long said.

Nearly 1,500 North Platte residential property owners got a tax increase this year because the land that their house sits on is worth more, according to county property appraisers.

That brought quite a few protests, Long said.

“Several subdivisions were reappraised, and land values were low compared to recent sales, so they were appraised higher,” she said.

“Anytime the valuation goes up, people get upset,” she said. “Generally, I just think people think taxes are too high.”

Long said protests can be a healthy process. Landowners learn more about which governmental units spend tax money, how taxes are set, and how to protest. And sometimes adjustments are made.

“Sometimes we find things we need to change,” she said. “For instance, we can’t get into every home and sometimes there are things in the interior (that result in a valuation change.)”

But Long said people sometimes assume the bad economy is everywhere. In reality, she said the state and county economy is relatively stable.

Nebraska and North Dakota have the lowest unemployment in the nation, half the national average of 9.5 percent. Gov. Dave Heineman appeared on Fox television news recently to talk about it. He credited Nebraska common sense, where people don’t spend more than they make, or borrow more than they can repay. In Nebraska. business and real estate speculation never went wild.

But still, some people got overextended.

More than 300 Bailey Yard employees have been sent home in recent months.

Home prices

Some folks haven’t withstood the downturn. Houses are being foreclosed in Lincoln County, which hardly ever happened before.

“I’ll see maybe 4-5 a week or when we look at a batch of home sales,” Long said. “Before, we rarely saw one.”

Nevertheless, homes are still selling at near their appraised price (instead of higher). Homes for sale are often on the market longer. Three to six months is relatively common, said Phil Barkley of Barkley and Harris Appraisal Service

A couple years ago everything was moving in 90 days

But, higher-priced homes are selling, Long said.

“We see home sales in the 200,000 to $300,000 range on a fairly regular basis,” she said.

Stable market

“North Platte has a very strong real estate market,” said Karen Waite, a realtor for Gateway-GMAC.

Waite admitted there are probably a few more foreclosures now than in previous years. She said, however, that foreclosures represent a minority of the houses for sale in North Platte.

And, Waite pointed out that four states — California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada — account for nearly half the foreclosures in the United States.

“It’s neither a buyer or a seller’s market in North Platte,” she said. “It’s a stable market.” Waite said the public perception is that it is a buyer’s market because of the national situation.

Sellers in North Platte are generally receiving 94-96 percent ‘list to sale.’ That is, a homeowner asking for $100,000 is typically getting $94,000-$96,000, according to Waite.

She is optimistic about the North Platte real estate market.

“This is Nebraska. Bankers know their clients, and they won’t approve a $150,000 loan for someone they know can only afford $125,000,” she said.

Bailey Yard

At Bailey Yard, workers are slowly and steadily returning to work after the company put hundreds of them on inactive status in recent months.

Nearly 285 engineers, conductors and switchmen are on furlough or the auxiliary schedule (receiving two days per week of standby pay), union officials at the yard estimate.

But 40 have been called back to work in the last month.

“The coal business seems to be picking up. So does intermodal,” BLET local chairman Bill Elliott said Tuesday.

Intermodal railcars carry shipping containers filled with consumer goods, headed for Wal-Marts and retail stores around the country.

UTU local chairman Ben Ebmeier agreed that the worst of the layoffs seems to be over for now.

Also, workers were laid off in the car department, maintenance and service areas of the yard, but it is difficult to get accurate numbers.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said 5,200 UP employees have been laid off in the U.S. – about 12 percent of the UP’s 45,000 workforce.

Davis refused to give specific numbers about jobs or rail traffic at Bailey Yard, citing concern for the upcoming company profit statement.

Nearly 25 percent of UP’s locomotives are currently sitting idle – 2,100 of 8,400 locomotives, according to Davis.

According to UP data, the number of rail cars loaded in the U.S. each week fell below 100,000 cars (per seven days) during the Christmas-New Year’s holiday, and it has bounced around since then, generally between 130,000 and 150,000 car loadings.

The number was 130,000 during the July 4 weekend -- a good sign.

“We’re hoping the economy is recovering,” Elliott said. “It’s coming back gradually.”

Walgreen’s, Love’s progress

The good economic news is the construction that is getting underway.

A year ago, Walgreen’s paid $2 million for two commercial lots at one of North Platte's busiest intersections -- Philip at Jeffers. It was the highest price for that much real estate in the county’s history. Now, the company is finally getting ready to build the store.

A video store there has been torn down. Dirt movers are busy preparing a new foundation.

Walgreen’s was founded in 1901 in Illinois. The company has steadily grown, opening its 1,000th store in 1984.

Walgreen’s aims to have 7,000 stores by 2010, according to the company website.

East of town at the Newberry I-80 interchange, dirt movers are preparing for a Love’s Travel Stop.

The travel center has been in the planning stages since last fall.

Love’s is also a big, growing company, with more than 200 locations in 34 states.

Love’s annual sales exceed $7 billion and the company has continued to add about 18 locations a year, according to the company website.

Love’s will go head-to-head with the Flying J Travel Center at the Newberry interchange.

And, in the biggest proect of all, work is expected to begin in August on a new $13.5 million county law enforcement building at Third and Jeffers, with jail and sheriff's offices.

Big overpass, U.S. Highway

Preparatory work on the new Buffalo Bill overpass in southwest North Platte is going strong. Machines have cleared an opening through trees and the South Platte River. The $12 million overpass will cross both the So. Platte as well as I-80, linking Buffalo Bill Ave. with State Farm Road at the foot of the hills south of town.

City officials haev discussed the Buffalo Bill extension since the late 1960s and were finally able to get all the financing lined up in 2008. Groundbreaking was June 3.

The new road will relieve bottlenecked traffic during the busiest hours on U.S. Highway 83 and provide an evacuation route to the hills in the event of an emergency -- such as a disaster at Bailey Yard.

The road will also serve one of the fastest-growing areas in the two-mile jurisdictional zone around North Platte -- south of the interstate.

South U.S. Highway 83 is getting a resurface with wider turning lanes, an automated stop light control system and new streetlights.

The renovation of 1.3 miles will take most of the summer, said engineer Gary Thayer of the Nebraska Department of Roads. The cost is $3.6 million.

The shoulders were widened in May and June. Now, one side of the highway is closed, creating a big bottleneck for traffic.

Motorists will suffer for a few months. One side of the expressway will remain closed while the other side is resurfaced in one shot.

Hotel, strip mall, car dealer

On the north side of I-80, the building is quickly going up for a new Fairfield Inn. Dirt work began last fall for the 50,000 square foot motel on So. River Rd., just west of Ruby Tuesday’s.

Near Shopko, Wilkinson Development is putting together a new strip mall at the corner of Philip Ave. and Cottonwood, on the north end of what is now the Shopko parking lot.

A section of that parking lot has been removed and foundation work will soon get underway. Developer Mark Wilkinson hopes the strip mall will be operating by November. The small mall will have room for 3-4 retail stores, and two businesses have signed leases already.

One is a new bakery operated by North Platte native Stacy Chingren. The other is a Godfather’s Pizza, owned by Steve Osborn of Sutherland. Osborn currently owns two “Ozzie’s” convenience stores in Sutherland – one along U.S. Highway 30 and one at the I-80 interchange.

Wilkinson said the U.S. Census Bureau will move in October to one of his buildings downtown, near 5th and Bailey. The building near 5th and Bailey is being renovated with a new brick exterior, new offices and restrooms.

The Census Bureau will lease the building for 12-16 months. Wilkinson said it is a good deal for the downtown area.

“It might help future development, downtown,” he said. “Right now, downtown property owners have a tough time improving buildings because they can’t get enough rent. We don’t know what we’re going to do with (the census building) at the conclusion of the lease, but it will be a good office building for someone.”

The downtown building is designed with more features than a typical non-governmental entity would have. The census offices have roomy bathrooms, insulated interior walls and a good security system, Wilkinson said.

Another North Platte project on the horizon is a car dealer coming to the DetCo plaza on the south side of town, just off Highway 83 and Walker Road.

An “Auto One” car dealership will put up a 2,500 square-foot building with a relatively large auto lot, North Platte Building Inspector Dave Hahn said.

Looking ahead

Wilkinson said the area economy is doing okay, as he considers his company's gas stations, real estate, motels and fast food restaurants in Sidney, Ogallala, North Platte, Lexington and Kearney.

“I think things are stable in our area and the outlook near-term is real good,” he said. “We didn’t have big oversupplies like other parts of the country. We didn’t have the property value run-ups and exponential expansions. We are not suffering from the feasts and famines of other states.”

Wilkinson said the only problem is borrowing money. Credit is tight.

“Banks and regulators tend to label all areas as problematic, like the rest of the country. I know credit is tighter here in North Platte than it was. I live it,” he said.

Wilkinson said his company's sales of gasoline is slightly higher than a year ago, when gas soared to nearly $4 a gallon. This summer, gas reached $2.70 a gallon in June, then fell to around $2.35 a gallon currently.

Poverty is growing, however.

Eric Seacrest, the director of Mid-Nebraska Community Foundation, said non-profit agencies are having a hard time.

“We’re seeing a downturn in charitable funds,” Seacrest said. “Many non-profits are struggling and need help.”

Big projects

Architect Grant Creager of CG Architects has seen no slowdown in his business within a 250-mile radius of North Platte.

Creager has several upcoming projects.

“There is quite a bit of strip mall construction,” he said. “The Gerald Gentleman Power Station (near Sutherland) is committed to a multi-million dollar administrative office expansion early next year. The Hershey and Paxton schools are considering expansions. We’ve drawn plans for a new Mid-Nebraska Physical Therapy and Sports Center in North Platte. Vieryo wireless is building cellular towers and opening retail stores.”

“Work is a little spotty for some construction contractors, but most of them are doing fine,” Creager said.

Seeking stimulus money, NOT

Little of the new construction is paid by federal stimulus money, Creager said, even though stimulus money appears to be more available.

“There seems to be more Community Development Block Grants,” he said. “And they are not matching grants.”

This report was first published in the July 8 edition of the North Platte Bulletin. Assistant Editor Ben Schwartz contributed.