City's insurance company settles in house fire lawsuit

The Beatrice City Council approved a resolution executing the settlement agreement and mutual release and all documents between the city and Joseph and Manelle Armstrong at its meeting Monday evening.

City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer said this has been an ongoing litigation matter after the fire at the Armstrong home in August 2021.

"Recently we had a court required mediation of all the parties in June," he said. "Our insurance company, Travelers, decided to settle this matter. It was Travelers' decision, and not our decision to make. Travelers will be the one writing the check, not the city of Beatrice."

"I'm always very proud of our fire department and our dispatchers," Mayor Bob Morgan said. "They are professionals. There was no wrongdoing found. We have an excellent fire department, dispatchers and police department. I'm proud of the job they do."

The Armstrongs' home was destroyed in the fire. In their lawsuit, they claimed Beatrice Fire & Rescue acted negligently in its response to the fire.

Virginia Gifford, director of Main Street Beatrice, gave the council its third-quarter report. She passed around coloring pages that had been returned from elementary students for Historic Preservation Month.

"This was just to give you a look into what our young people see in the historic downtown buildings," she said.

She reviewed annual promotional items and events, including upcoming activities. The Taste of Downtown event will be 1 to 5 p.m. Aug. 23; Night of the Great Pumpkin is planned for October.

Main Street is 50% complete on the construction of a downtown business directory.

"I've categorized all the businesses for it to be an easy guide for people to access it. It was made for people who are visiting. This gives people another opportunity to plan their trips a little more and discover businesses they didn't realize were downtown," she said.

They are planning two business training workshops to take place in late July and August, in addition to a marketing workshop. Shannon Filing will be leading those trainings.

Gifford noted that four businesses are in the planning stage with startups in progress. In the last quarter, four other businesses have opened in downtown Beatrice.

She mentioned attending the Main Street America Conference in Philadelphia.

"There were a couple things that I found interesting that other towns had done," she said.

Gifford noted that there were 643 attendees at Ribfest in June. She noted that the excessive heat affected turnout with attendance down 50%. Two vendors cancelled due to the heat, but there was positive participant feedback following the event.

Tempelmeyer gave a brief administrator's report, which included an outline on progress of projects throughout Beatrice.

"There are a number of projects going on throughout the community," he said.

The next meeting of the City Council will be Aug. 4.