The Beatrice City Council approved the third and final reading of a 3 percent occupation tax, projected to generate $60,000 a year, on all Beatrice lodging facilities to begin Dec. 1.

The money will be placed in the general fund for city capital improvement projects, such as the Beatrice trail system or the Carnegie Library.

The proposed tax ordinance was presented and read twice at the city council meeting in July. At that time the proposed tax drew opposition from local hotel and motel owners. Local hotel and motel owners were concerned the tax would decrease business because of the added expense to patrons.

Over the last few months, the occupation tax committee, made of councilmen Phil Cook, Ted Fairbanks, Rich Kerr and Gary Lytle; met with members of the lodging industry to discuss their concerns. The committee and the representatives from the lodging industry agreed that if the tax would pass there would be continual updates on how much the tax was garnering and a portion collected would go toward increasing tourism in Beatrice.  

Kerr expressed his concerns about initiating another tax.

“I still think this is just another tax we’re putting on,” he said. “I just hope that if we do initiate this thing there will be records kept with how much is actually in the general fun for this and this will be used not for the bells and whistles and toys that we want to spend it on.

“But, use it when we have to keep from having to tax, or put extra burden on our taxpayers.”

Councilman Alan Fetty agreed with Kerr that the funds need to be used for special projects where the money is not available in the general budget.

“We as a council talk continuously about broadening our tax base,” Fetty said. “I think this is a way to do it.”

Lori Warner, president of the Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce, asked the council to continue to keep in mind the importance of promoting tourism in Beatrice to put “heads on beds”.

“We have to find a way to promote and get people to stay here more than six hours or eight hours,” Warner said. “We want them to stay overnight.”

The city previously enacted a 2.5 percent occupation tax in 2007 to help pay for a proposed joint city and county visitors center, but the tax was repealed after Gage County dropped out of the project.

In other business:

Grant Street: Approved change order increase of $4,350 and final payment in the amount of $69,813 to Trauernicht Construction Inc. for the Grant Street reconstruction project.

Wheel loader: Approved lease program for a 2008 Wheel Loader 924HZ Caterpillar as recommended by the Board of Public Works.

Cedar Street closing: Approved resolution to close Cedar Street between Scott and West Mary streets on the days when school is in session between 2:50 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Milliken Street: Approved rezoning properties, 605 Milliken, 603 Milliken, 601 Milliken and 715 Milliken, Riverside Park Addition, from Residential commercial to general; commercial.

Northgate: Approved application of Northgate Investment Co., LLC, for rezoning three parcels located in the northeast quarter of the southwest corner of U.S. Highway 77 and Hickory Road parcel #1 from agricultural to general commercial, parcel #2 from agricultural to office and parcel #3 from agricultural to general commercial.

Northgate Crossing: Approved final reading to annex the parcel known as Northgate Crossing , Section16, Township 4 north, range 6 east of the 6th pm, located north of the Beatrice Airport.

911 Ambulance: Approved to send the two bids, ranging from $164,000 to $167,500, received for a new 911 ambulance for review by the city administrator and the Beatrice Fire and Rescue Chief.

LB840 funds: The council was presented the semi-annual report of the Citizen’s Advisory Review Committee concerning LB840 funding. The city currently has $901,586 in LB840 funding to be used toward economic development. The past year’s revenue brought in an additional $406,424. The only expenditure for the year was $180,000 to Gage County Economic Development.