Kearney Mayor Jonathan Nikkila giving the 2025 State of the City on Friday, March 7, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — Kearney Mayor Jonathan Nikkila provided the 2025 State of the City at an event hosted by the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Kearney on Friday, March 7.
Nikkila noted he had served on the Kearney City Council since 2012 and was recently named mayor in 2024.
The City of Kearney’s mission statement is “We provide services, solutions and opportunities for our community.”
Nikkila said the city achieves this by approaching residents with a customer service mindset. He also said that the city should be both clean and safe, those two factors go a long way in the perception of the community.
Nikkila said the city works to manage taxpayer money faithfully and to not tax more than they need. He noted that Kearney ranks first among peer cities for having the lowest property tax levy.
He also seeks to have transparency when it comes to city council decisions. To that end, Nikkila provides regular updates on social media following council meetings with what occurred for those who were unable to attend and has done so for many years.
At the end of the day, Nikkila said the city wants to be a problem solver, not create them and to participate in setting a vision for the future of the community.
Nikkila said that Kearney has a particular community spirit that helps them to succeed and compete with their peer communities in the state.
Kearney has a population of 34,362 people, but when you add the number of people who come to work in the community, that tally swells to around 52,000 during business hours, said Nikkila.
Nikkila said Kearney is well known for its amenities when it comes to parks and recreation. He noted Kearney has 26 different recreational sites or facilities, 600 acres of parks, 25 miles of trails and a 2.3-mile water trail.
When looking at the City of Kearney’s budget it is $132 million with 37.2 million in the general fund. He said Kearney collects around $5 million in property taxes, but noted that the city is mainly funded through its sales tax.
The gross sales tax receipts continue to grow year by year, in 2022 it was $16,400,055; in 2023, $16,987,755 and 2024, $17,841,108.
One question often asked is how the growth on the south side of Kearney is being funded, Nikkila said that the majority for the growth near the Interstate is being fueled by private investment. He noted he would like to see more direct city investment in the downtown area to keep it the “postcard” picture of Kearney.
Highlighting the good in the community, Nikkila said their larger employers are stable with some making renewed investments into their facilities. He noted the community is well protected by the Kearney Police Department and the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department.
Looking at current issues, which are not all unique to Kearney, there are shortfalls when it comes to the available work force and availability of housing.
Nikkila said that housing is largely a private sector issue but noted that only 95 new residential housing permits were sought in 2024, not enough to meet demand.
He added that current studies show Kearney needs around 600-700 new units and only adding 100 units per year causes the problem to grow larger. Nikkila said that there will be conversations about the density of the city and other factors such as availability of childcare.
To close, Nikkila said that the city does not wish to inhibit growth and can help incentivize those sectors they wish to see grow but that they wish to be a part of the solution and not the problem.
2025 City of Kearney State of the City, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
