2A • THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDMAIN NEWS

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January 31, 2019VOL. 154, EDITIOn 101

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renovation and rebuild,” saidSen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., whoserves on the Senate Armed Ser-vices Committee. “They foundthe degradation was even worsethan they expected.”

Offutt is the home base for 29C-135-variant reconnaissancejets belonging to the 55th Wingas well as four E-4B Nightwatchjets capable of operating as anairborne command post in a na-tional emergency. Those planesare part of the 595th Commandand Control Group.

Their flight operations willmove to the Lincoln Airport be-ginning in December while theOffutt runway is rebuilt. TheOffutt runway reconstruction isscheduled to be completed in De-cember 2020.

The price tag for the projectincludes $100 million for Offuttrunway reconstruction, as wellas $20 million to renovate a han-gar at the Lincoln Airport and anadjacent road and apron, with therest going for costs associatedwith transporting Offutt workersto Lincoln each day.

“This is good for the communi-ty,” Goodfellow said. “We’re ableto stay in Nebraska and get ourfolks home every night.”

Goodfellow said the rebuiltrunway will have concrete touch-down areas, while the center lineand shoulders will be made of as-phalt. He expects future mainte-nance costs to be lower.

“It’s less costly when you lookat the total life cycle,” he said.

The runway also will be nar-rowed from its original width,and new lighting will be installed.

The rebuilt runway is expectedto last for 40 years, Goodfellowsaid. The earlier patching proj-ect would have been good for 20years.

He said the Air Force is stillworking out a lease with the Lin-

coln Airport Authority for useof its facilities. He expects con-struction at the Lincoln Airportto begin in March or April andcontinue until November.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Re-publican whose 1st District in-cludes the base, issued a state-ment supporting the change.

“This welcome adjustmentfrom repairing the existing run-way to a complete replacementwith a modern design and ma-terials will improve the 55thWing’s mission effectivenessand provide taxpayers with ex-tended cost-savings in operationsand maintenance for decades tocome,” he said.

Offutt’s lone runway was builtin 1941 and opened just weeks af-ter the Japanese attack on PearlHarbor. Though there have beennumerous patches, and majorrunway renovations in 1983, 1995and 2006, much of the originalconcrete still remains. More thanhalf of the runway is at least 40years old, Offutt officials said.

In 2015, the 55th Wing’s Vir-ginia-based parent command,the Air Combat Command, beganraising alarms about the poorcondition of the runway. Officialsat the time said 26 percent ofthe runway was at high risk forfailure, even though crews spentabout 400 hours a year maintain-

ing it.“Offutt’s runway is the worst

of any in the Air Combat Com-mand,” Col. Matt Joganich, thencommander of the 55th MissionSupport Group, said at the time.“It’s been Band-Aided over theyears. At some point, it has to bereplaced.”

Those concerns prompted Ne-braska’s congressional delega-tion to make runway improve-ments at Offutt one of theirhighest priorities.

“Hopefully it’s going to make ita more attractive base (to the AirForce),” Fischer said.

sliewer@owh.com, 402-444-1186twitter.com/SteveLiewer

Runway: In December, flights move to Lincoln for a yearContinued from Page 1

R Y A N S O D E R L I N / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

airman Patrick yohn marks an area for repair while making a routine inspection of the Offutt air Force Base runwayin 2015. at top, airmen look for debris, which can get into a jet’s engine and damage it.

than 5 percent of the homes withan increase.

The situation differs in Doug-las County, which revalues partsof the county every year, but notevery residential property atonce.

In Douglas County, more thanhalf the core residential proper-ties that The World-Herald ana-lyzed — 53 percent — received apreliminary increase. That rep-resents more than 84,000 homes.

Out of the rest of homeown-ers, about 39 percent — some62,000 property owners — hadno change in the new figures. Theremaining 12,000 homeownersare in line for a decrease.

Among those getting increas-

es, 45 percent of them — or38,000 homeowners — are inline for an increase of $20,000 ormore, according to the newspa-per’s analysis.

About 10 percent of people get-ting an increase will see a hike of$43,000 or more.

Official property valuationsare due out by June 1, and peoplecan file a full protest in June.

For now, homeowners in Doug-las and Sarpy Counties can takeissue with their property valu-ation and schedule an in-personmeeting with an official fromtheir Assessor’s Office.

In Douglas County, propertyowners must notify the Asses-sor’s Office by Friday that theywant to meet. People can call402-444-6734, email valuationis-

sues@douglascounty-ne.gov ordrop off their information at theDouglas County Assessor/Regis-ter of Deeds Office on the fourthfloor at 1819 Farnam St. You canalso mail information to: Doug-las County Assessor/Register ofDeeds, Attn: Preliminary Valu-ation, 1819 Farnam St., 4th floor,Omaha, NE 68183.

If you have to leave a phonemessage, the Assessor’s Officewill contact everyone who lefttheir name and number to sched-ule a meeting, chief office depu-ty Larry Miller said. People whomail information by Friday canstill get an appointment, Millersaid.

You’ll want to check to makesure your home’s square footage,number of rooms, features such

as decks or pools and other in-formation are correct. Also, lookup the tax valuations, sale pric-es and price per square foot ofcomparable homes in and aroundyour neighborhood to see if yourhome is outside the norm.

The Sarpy County Assessor’sOffice will schedule meetingswith homeowners who reach outbefore March 1. You can call theoffice at 402-593-2122. “The As-sessor’s Office can address manyissues and corrections withoutthe need for a formal protest,saving property owners time andeffort,” the office said in a pressrelease.

jeff.robb@owh.com, 402-444-1128twitter.com/jeffreyrobb

Valuations: Douglas revalues parts of county each yearContinued from Page 1

in the next contract. When trash andyard waste are mixed together, eitherbefore or after the hauler picks it up,it has to be dumped in the landfill. Ifyard waste is collected separately, itcan be turned into Oma-Gro compost.

In any case, the system is chang-ing significantly, from one whereworkers now throw waste by handinto garbage trucks to one where thetrucks will automatically lift resi-dents’ 96-gallon covered carts intothe trucks.

The annual bids for different lev-els of service are:

Three carts, one each for trash, yardwaste and recyclables. Each would bepicked up weekly.» $31.8 million — Waste Managementof Nebraska» $31.1 million — Waste Connectionsof Nebraska» $28.3 million — FCC EnvironmentalServices» $21.9 million — West CentralSanitation

Three carts, one each for trash, yardwaste and recyclables. Trash and yardwaste would be picked up weekly;recyclables would be picked up everyother week.» $28.6 million — Waste Connections» $28.1 million — Waste Management» $25.5 million — FCC» $19.1 million — West Central

Three carts. Trash and yardwaste mixed together in two, andrecyclables in another. all picked upweekly.» $31.3 million — Waste Management» $27.5 million — Waste Connections» $25.4 million — FCC» $18.6 million — West Central

Three carts. Trash and yard wastemixed together in two and picked upweekly. recyclables picked up everyother week.» $27.5 million — Waste Management» $25.5 million — Waste Connections» $22.5 million — FCC» $15.7 million — West Central

Two carts. Trash and yard wastemixed together in one and recyclablesin another. all picked up weekly.» $28.5 million — Waste Management» $24.7 million — Waste Connections» $23.3 million — FCC» $16.3 million — West Central

Two carts. Trash and yard wastemixed together in one and pickedup weekly. recyclables would go inanother and be picked up every otherweek.» $24.7 million — Waste Management» $22.7 million — Waste Connections» $20.5 million — FCC» $13.5 million — West Central

Each of the companies providedadditional bids that account for theprice of the carts, spring and fallcleanups, and what it would cost forpeople to purchase stickers to placeon bags filled with additional yardwaste, since the city is doing awaywith unlimited yard waste pickup atthe curb. Those bids varied.

The contract provides residentialwaste collection for some 150,000households. In Omaha, residentsdon’t pay a separate fee for wastecollection; it’s paid through a resi-dent’s property tax bill.

Waste Management, which is con-tracted to pick up the city’s residen-tial waste through the end of 2020,has struggled to fulfill the require-ments of the existing contract, say-ing it can’t find enough drivers.

The city is requiring the next con-tract to be a mostly automatic, mod-ern system. That means the trucks,in most parts of the city, will auto-matically grab a person’s 96-galloncovered cart and dump it into thetruck.

While people will initially be of-fered the 96-gallon carts, there willbe an opportunity to exchange themfor smaller ones.

Next steps include a committeereviewing the bids and delivering areport to Public Works Director BobStubbe, who will make a recommen-dation to Stothert. She will then makea recommendation to the City Coun-cil for approval.

Stothert could make a recommen-dation to the council in late March.

emily.nohr@owh.com, 402-444-1309

Waste: Carts to beautomatically liftedContinued from Page 1