Buffalo County Courthouse (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — The Buffalo County commissioners approved a resolution adopting common legislative priorities with the “Big Five” counties for the Nebraska Legislature’s 2026 session during their meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 13.
The commissioners approved the resolution for Buffalo County to join with Nebraska five largest, counties, Douglas, Lancaster, Sarpy, Hall and Buffalo. Together they comprise around 1.2 million people, or 62 percent of the state’s population.
Commissioner Bill Maendele said that for years, Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy counties have adopted common legislature priorities and can lobby together. Hall and Buffalo were joining in the coalition to support several common goals.
According to the resolution, the coalition opposes unfunded state mandates, inflationary impediments that regulate county services and support reforms to the state’s tax structures.
The main priorities include property tax relief, inheritance tax and tax shifts to counties.
The commissioners approved the resolution unanimously.
In other action commissioners heard discussion on county public record request fee policy.
Buffalo County Attorney, Shawn Eatherton, said if approved, his office will create a draft resolution and a fee schedule for public record requests. This will help create consistency when it comes to record requests from the public and keep in line with the current state statue.
Eatherton noted that there is a cost in time and material when these requests are made and the fees will reflect in-state or out-of-state requests.
The commissioners approved the Attorney’s Office to crate the resolution and fee schedule.
During the facilities update, Facilities Director Steve Gaasch, gave an update on the year end numbers from the Buffalo County Recreation Area-Ravenna Lake.
Buffalo County Recreation Area-Ravenna Lake was originally developed as a base for Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. After the nine-year program ended in 1942, the base became a State Recreation Area.
n the early 2000s the land was gifted from the State of Nebraska to Buffalo County, and since then, the County has established the Buffalo County Recreation Area-Ravenna Lake
Gaasch said that Ravenna Lake has seen a growing number of campers since 2019. In 2025, the area saw 2,700 campers, which was a 38 percent increase from last year.
Commissioner Dan Lynch passed on the compliments of Ravenna Mayor, Fred Matejka, who said that the lake is a boon to the community and praised the work of the Buffalo County employees for the work they have done to the area.
