The R-C Morning Report

It's going to be a long day for county commissioners who will start out at 10 a.m. with a two-hour closed labor negotiations session with its three employee associations.

Douglas Disposal is seeking a rate increase effective June 1. Douglas County commissioners will discuss the request and some alterations to the company's franchise agreement today at their regular meeting. Also on the agenda are a request for a motocross track next to the Douglas County Animal Shelter and a rewrite of the outdoors festival permit.

Jack Van Dien said he's filed an open meeting law violation against the county for the commissioners' Feb. 19 support for Senate Bill 278. The bill, which would have allowed counties to combine to form health districts and set up a tax structure to pay for them came under fire early from Van Dien and former Commission candidate Stuart Posselt, who got a measure approved by the Douglas County Central Committee opposing it. The bill was gutted by the Senate, converted into a measure to study the idea, before being moved over to the Assembly. Even if it gets through the Assembly in its present form, by the time the study was done, the economy will have turned around and the motivation for creating the district in the first place will have disappeared for another 10 years.

The weather will be nice today, with sunny skies and a light wind of 5-10 mph, and pretty much stay that way through the weekend. It looks like there's a cool-down and a bit of a disturbance the middle of next week, but even that won't take the lows below freezing. Expect the highs to approach 80 today.