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Hickman, located just south of Lincoln, is one of the fastest growing communities in Nebraska with a population of more than 3,000. The median price of a Hickman home is $343,000, and the median income is just over $104,000 – numbers comparable to the capital city. Dale Johnson asked Hickman City Administrator Kelly Oelke if those numbers surprise her.
Kelly Oelke: No, we are located so close to Lincoln. Hickman is somewhat of a bedroom community. So businesses are competing for employees with the city of Lincoln, and I think the Housing Strategy is there as well. So when the city of Hickman is offering a variety of diversified housing opportunities for individuals, they're looking at living in Hickman and the cost of commuting to Lincoln versus living in Lincoln with some higher housing costs or longer commutes due to the traffic.
Dale Johnson: So help me understand how Hickman is handling that housing growth?
Oelke: Hickman has been blessed over the last multiple years with developers coming in and developing large parcels of land. So where the city is having anywhere from 60 to 80 lots available to build on at one time, there's housing available in which a person can buy as a starter home and do some remodeling. At the lower end of the spectrum, there's also apartment dwellings. There's town homes.
Johnson: You don't want to lose the small-town vibe of a community such as Hickman, but yet you want it to be contemporary, to draw people in. So talk about that dichotomy a little bit.
Oelke: Commercial growth was slow going for a little bit, and now it has really picked up the pace in the last five years. We used to try to ask businesses to come to town, and now they call us to come to town, so we're trying to help them find parcels to build on, buildings to rehab, that sort of thing. So when a family or persons move to Hickman, there are amenities available to them right in town, such as the local U-Stop has groceries there, the Dollar General store,we have multiple restaurants. There are jobs available that are local. However, most of our population does work in the Lincoln area, and they commute there.
Johnson: How do you not lose that in a community that is growing so fast, grew by 1000 people between 2010 and 2020. 179% growth between 2000 and 2023, how do you keep that small town vibe in a community that's becoming more expensive in which to live?
Oelke: I believe we focus strongly on recreational activities. So the city of Hickman has a strong park system, multiple parks for the young families that live in town, multiple locations, newer equipment that's been put in on those parks to play and visit with your neighbors. We have an expansive trail system, so there's a lot of people out exercising and walking on our trails, walking their dogs, their strollers, with their loved ones and their family members and their friends. And that really brings everybody together.
Johnson: Positives come from population growth. Problems come from population growth.
Oelke: That is true.
Johnson: Such as infrastructure.
Oelke: Yes.
Johnson: Talk about being able to handle that percentage of growth for a community of between 3,000 and 3,100 or so, such as the water problems that Hickman has had in the past.
Oelke: I'm going to have to correct you on that, Dale, so maybe not a water problem. The city of Hickman, we have a strong source of water, so we have a lot of water. The problem we run into sometimes is the capacity of our treatment plant. Last year, the city invested over $1.5 million to double the capacity of their water treatment plant. So water quality isn't so much the issue, it's the quantity and how fast can the city process that in order to get it to our customers, when the demand continues to go up. We also invested $4 million last year to double the capacity of our wastewater treatment plant. So of course, if you have a lot more water flowing through your system, there's going to be more wastewater as well. We are focusing more on going towards a reservoir tank and a booster pump system out at the water treatment plant for storage, versus another tower in town. So we do have some pressure, I wouldn't say issues, but some lower pressures that citizens maybe don't care for in their homes. Current water pressures in our systems are anywhere from about 40 to 90 psi. So when it's down that 40, and if your sprinklers are going and you take a shower, you're not going to have a lot of water pressure. So we do have a booster pump system being constructed right now in Hickman at our current water tower to help boost those pressures in town. And then with the future project we'll be adding, it's going to be a one to one and a half million gallon reservoir to hold more water to get that water to town, and we'll have to increase the size of our mains as well.
Johnson: Thank you for making the trip in.
Oelke: You're welcome.
Johnson: Joining me for the conversation, Hickman City Administrator Kelly Oelke joining me on Nebraska Public Media. I'm Dale Johnson.