BEATRICE – Lower Big Blue Natural Resources District officials continue to study what is one of the oldest watersheds in the State of Nebraska….from Cortland to Beatrice.


NRD Manager Dave Clabaugh says the Little Indian watershed was a pilot project dating back to the 1950s and 60s. He says the various structures that hold back water within the area have exceeded their planned lifetime.


"If we can do anything to improve them...of course over the years, they've had some deterioration in the risers....and they need some work on them, because they are so old. Maybe possibly enlarging some of them or moving some of them. Maybe there's an opportunity to put some more in. We're evaluating that whole watershed and its impact downstream, which basically would be the City of Beatrice."  There has been considerable development of homes in the watershed area since its construction.


Meanwhile the Lower Big Blue NRD continues to work on a project to establish a new headquarters along West Hickory Road…..north of Beatrice Community Hospital. Clabaugh says the NRD has been in discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration on height restrictions since the building would be near the Beatrice Municipal Airport.  Clabaugh says the planned building, across an entrance drive from Rare Earth Salts, would be only about thirty feet tall and would replace the building along Dorsey Avenue in Beatrice….in use since the mid-1980s.


"We're sitting here in town with tractors and fifth-wheel trailers...and we have no room here. We're actually renting space from our neighbor, here."


The NRD manager says it will be some time yet before construction starts.  "With zoning and everything we have to do...with the FAA...we have to break ground before 2023. What will probably happen with building costs through the roof, we have a storage shed type of thing planned first. That may be the start, before we actually move into design (of office space)."


Clabaugh, as manager, won’t be getting a chance to use the new headquarters. He has announced his plan to the NRD’s Board of Directors to retire at the end of this year, or early in 2022. The NRD’s Board has decided to initially take applications in-house among staff members for interest in the manager position.


Clabaugh has served natural resources districts for 42 years…..7 with the Upper Big Blue NRD in York, before joining the Lower Big Blue NRD in 1987.