Peru City Council Honors First Responders, Approves Playground Equipment and Pushes Ahead With Staff Ordinance Despite Dissent

The full Peru City Council approved funding for new playground equipment, authorized a sensory garden and community garden project, and directed city representatives to pursue $339,000 in unpaid water and sewer charges from Peru State College at its April 21 meeting.
Proclamations and recognition
Mayor Novak opened the meeting by proclaiming April 24 as Arbor Day and May 9 as Peru State College Class of 2026 Recognition Day and encouraging residents to celebrate both days.
First responders honored
The council also passed a resolution honoring and thanking all first responders to the Peru Curry Timber Fire.
Playground and parks projects move forward
The council approved an additional $15,000 from the Sales Tax Fund to purchase new playground equipment for Sid Brown Park, bringing the total available for the project to $36,000. The selected unit costs approximately $28,000, ships within two to four weeks, and will be installed by community volunteers with site groundwork provided by Black Hills Energy.
The council also unanimously approved plans for a phased sensory garden at Neal Park aimed at serving children with special needs and community members. Phase 1 will focus on infrastructure — sidewalk, site preparation and a concrete walkway — with funding to be sought through grants. 
Rounding out the parks and recreation agenda, the council approved to establish a community garden on city-owned property at 401 5th Street. The proposed garden would include 15 to 18 raised garden beds and nine fruit trees, and be open to all town residents.
College owes city $339,000 in back utility charges
After moving into closed session, the council authorized Mayor Katie Novak and Councilman Brent Brown, accompanied by the city attorney, to approach Peru State College’s president about repayment of $339,000 in unpaid water and sewer charges dating to March 2023. The proposal includes no added fees or penalties and allows for installment payments. The underbilling was traced to a meter that had not been read correctly.
Water loss investigation to involve experts
The council voted unanimously to contact the Nebraska Rural Water Association for guidance on commissioning a professional water flow study after many months of unexplained water loss the city has been unable to resolve internally. The study would map the distribution system, identify unmetered connections, and locate any unmapped lines. A special meeting will be called once direction is received.
Staffing ordinance advances over mayor’s objection
In a 3-1 vote with Councilwoman Rachel Brown dissenting, the council passed the second reading of a series of ordinances put forth by Teresa Westfall, which reduces the deputy clerk position from full-time to part-time, removes grant coordination from the role and requires the unfilled administrative assistant position to be funded through grants rather than the general budget.
Mayor Novak warned the change will have visible consequences to the already lean city staff. “Dennis [Kirkpatrick, Peru City Clerk] is currently doing two people’s jobs,” she said. “Cutting the deputy clerk to part-time means City Hall hours would likely need to be reduced.”
Deputy Clerk Mary Williams told the council she currently oversees more than $450,000 in obligated federal grant funds and that a portion of her salary is reimbursable to the city through those programs. Reducing her hours, she said, would diminish that reimbursement and risk incomplete closeout of active grants.
A competing proposal from Mayor Novak that would have preserved the position as full-time and reconfigured the role to include grant coordination failed to receive a second and did not advance.
As a procedural step required by both proposals, the council unanimously passed the second reading of an ordinance, formally separating the deputy clerk and grant coordinator into two distinct positions.
City to pursue new utility billing software
Staff presented a proposal to replace the current Power Manager billing system with GWorks, a cloud-based platform. The existing system has drawn repeated complaints from staff, including random errors that once caused every customer bill to be estimated and required manual correction. First-year cost would be $6,800. The council asked staff to confirm post-discount pricing and ongoing support terms before voting. No action was taken.
Other business
Arban Excavation received council approval to extend the current downtown sidewalk replacement project to complete the full remaining section on the block of Peru City Hall — approximately 64 feet by 9 feet — rather than stopping partway as part of sewer line replacement on Fifth Street. Funding comes from the Streets fund.
Staff is working with the Southeast Nebraska Development District (SENDD) on a survey to be mailed to all residents at no cost to the city. SENDD will handle postage, data collection and reporting, with two rounds of mailing planned.
The next meeting of the Peru City Council will take place on Tuesday May 19, 2026 at 6 p.m. at Peru City Hall.