The Jefferson County commissioners kicked off their 2026 calendar with their annual board reorganization proceedings last Tuesday. Michael Dux, the longest-tenured member of the board, was elected chairman for 2026, with departing chairman Mark Schoenrock elected vice-chair as he also begins to ramp up his campaign for the state legislature.  

"It’s been a pleasure to serve with my fellow commissioners this last year," Schoenrock said. "I feel like we did a number of very good things to help serve our fellow citizens right here in Jefferson County, and I look forward to the year 2026, with Mike serving as chairman, having Danielle [Schwab] on the board, we’re a great team, and I look forward here in 2026 to again serve our fellow citizens with all of our elected officials, and all of our department heads. We work hard every day to serve our citizens, and we try hard to make sure that we’re making good decisions to serve our fellow citizens."

"I have enjoyed it, and still have lots to learn. So I’m excited about having a new chairman, learning about new, different tweaks and personalities, and then also just learning those processes, because there’s still plenty to learn every day," Schwab said.

"It’s been an honor and a pleasure to serve with Mark and Danielle this past year, so thank you for your service," said Dux. "I will say that after my time here, I’m still learning, and there are things that I’ve learned that I don’t want to learn – and you will find that out too. And there’s a lot of things you’re going to learn that you do want to know." 

Construction on the bridge on the PWF Road near Diller is moving forward, thanks largely to some ideal weather over the last month or two. 

"They’re going to start pouring in abutments with a dead man, which helps to hold stuff in place," assistant highway supervisor Terry Blas said. "It’s got rebar running to the abutment to help hold it. They’re going to work on both sides while they’re doing that. We’ll probably be sitting idle in March for a little bit while the beams are curing – the concrete beams have to cure for so long. Probably won’t be doing a lot on it for the first week of March or so. We’ve had super weather, and if it holds, we’ll be alright – it shouldn't take too long."

JJK Construction initially gave a timeline of 110 working days to complete the project; construction began in earnest at the start of December, and the bridge itself is on track to be reopened sometime around May. 

"They’d like to pour the deck the first of April, so they’d finish around the first of May," Blas said. "I think before school starts we should have it open and ready to go, depending on how our other stuff comes along on the rest of the road. But it should be ready to go [then]."

Schoenrock reported that the project to rebuild the eastern half of the PWF Road is on track to go out for bids this summer, with construction to begin after that.

And the board weighed whether they should support a proposed interlocal agreement from SENDD, which would give the regional entity the authority to buy and sell real estate in any of the 16 Southeast Nebraska counties it serves. Other counties like Lancaster and York have already signed on, but Jefferson County attorney Joe Casson cautioned that the proposal might be acting as a legal loophole.  

"They don't have the power to do it on their own. They want to act independently within the whole district rather than partner with an individual county to do projects in that county," Casson said. "Acquiring rural homes that are empty and abandoned, and moving them to places they’re needed. That’s the project on the table. And they can’t do that independently."

Casson was brought in to weigh in on whether the proposal was legally valid. Now, he said, it's up to the commissioners, the counterparts in the other 15 counties, and anyone who sits on the SENDD board (Schwab is the Jefferson County delegate) to determine whether the proposal is a good policy. 

"The deviation from what the original intent was is what’s creating the problem," Casson said. "What we’re authorizing them to do is act independently. And if they act independently, my position is, we don’t have any responsibility for what they do. Now, if they come to us and say, ‘we want to undertake a project and we want you to sign on,’ then we’re becoming responsible for that project. My belief is that this legislation was to create an entity that works with counties on projects – now they want to deviate from that and have their own projects."

Now that they’re officially convening every other week, next week’s agenda will be a full one for this particular board. Next Tuesday morning at 10 AM, they’ll be hosting a public hearing on the planning and zoning comprehensive plan that committee approved earlier this month. And Tuesday afternoon at 1 PM in the courtroom, the commissioners will do something they said they’ve never had to do before: they’ll be hosting a grievance hearing with four former county employees, all of whom are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and were fired from their jobs last year.