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In November the board earmarked $25,000
of income from the county farm for economic development. The farm
fund, viewed as discretionary money, was chosen instead of the
general fund, which is collected directly from taxpayers through
real estate taxes.
In February State's Attorney Tim Huyett,
in response to an inquiry, put out an opinion that meetings of the
Economic Development Corporation board of directors are subject to
the Open Meetings Act. Since the meetings are in fact not open,
Huyett advised the two county board members who sit on the EDC
board, Dale Voyles and Dick Logan, not to participate unless the EDC
complies with the act.
Bobbi Abbott, executive director of the
Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce, cited a contradictory
opinion from the chamber's attorney, John Gehlbach. He concluded
that the Economic Development Executive Council (what Huyett termed
the EDC board) is a committee of the chamber, which is legally
independent of the county board and the city of Lincoln, and as such
is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. Abbott said the EDEC is not
a public body and is not required to hold open meetings but is
purposely structured to share information with the county through
its two county board representatives.
Board chair Voyles, who at November
budget meetings was instrumental in keeping the county contribution
to economic development at $25,000, made the motion to withhold
payment. He stressed that Huyett is the county's attorney and the
board must follow his opinion unless it is challenged or reversed.
Voyles was countered by Logan and Terry Werth, who urged their
fellow board members not to renege on the commitment made in the
budget. In the straw poll the motion to withhold payment until the
EDC meets open meetings criteria passed by one vote, with Dave
Hepler abstaining.
Earlier, after Economic Development
Director Jeff Mayfield's energetic plea to move forward on creation
of a commerce park, the board set a special meeting for 7 p.m.,
Monday, April 21, in the courthouse first-floor courtroom to debate
economic development priorities. Mayfield is invited to the public
meeting, along with owners of land developed for industrial uses.
Hepler, Mitch Brown, Bob Farmer and Chuck Ruben voted against
holding the meeting.
Mayfield cited three businesses that
are ready to come to Lincoln as soon as a north-side park is
developed, if the deal is right. They are Carroll Distributing, auto
wholesaler Mike Stude of Chicago and Daron Whittaker of Lincoln for
a Cub Cadet dealership. He added that other businesses are
interested but are not yet ready to be named publicly. Though
emphasizing that he wants to develop all parts of the county,
Mayfield said he has no current leads interested in a site on the
west side.
Commending Decatur's "We like it here"
campaign, Mayfield challenged public officials to help transform
negative attitudes. Despite the weak economy, he asserted, it is a
good time to develop industrial sites because interest rates are at
a 30-year low.
Saying, "I'm recommending a new spirit
or level of cooperation," Mayfield asked the county to purchase the
north-side industrial park site and the city of Lincoln to provide
the infrastructure. A spec building is no longer part of the plan.
He calculated the city's interest payment at $33,550 and the
county's at $20,684 annually for the first three years, with higher
payments later. He also proposed asking utility companies to lower
their charges further. As an inducement, Mayfield said the Economic
Development Council would pay the county's first year's interest.
Then the county would have two years before its first payment.
Mayfield is providing board members
with several documents to consider before the April 21 meeting.
[to top of second column in
this article]
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In another contested vote the board
tentatively decided to bid out its commercial liability insurance,
with a June 1 due date set for bids. Insurance and Legislative
Committee chair Gloria Luster said she could not find anyone to
prepare bid specifications in the time available, so the board will
have to go with specs from the last time the insurance was bid.
St. Paul is the county's current
commercial liability carrier, with Jerry Palmer as agent. The
company has not yet communicated its rates for the policy year
beginning July 16. A 60-day notice is mandatory if the increase is
30 percent or more. Voyles said there has been no problem with St.
Paul.
In a straw vote the board favored
bidding out the insurance, with Hepler and Brown opposing. A
specialist in preparing bid specifications will be invited to speak
to the board in the summer or fall. Specifications need to be
completed by January, Luster explained.
In other business Logan County Health
Department Administrator Lloyd Evans announced that as of July 1 the
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine is cutting its
$80,000 annual contribution to the Rural Health van operated by
Healthy Communities Partnership. SIU uses the van in its educational
program. The money, which comes from an Illinois Department of
Public Health grant, is largely used to pay a nurse practitioner's
salary.
Evans said he and Abraham Lincoln
Memorial Hospital Chief Executive Officer Woody Hester are pursuing
other sources of funding in an attempt to save the nurse
practitioner's job and the van. If these are lost, Evans affirmed
that the Health Department is still committed to serving the 14
communities the van visits. In the worst-case scenario, a full-time
nurse will continue to work in the communities but on a reduced
schedule.
In other straw polls the board voted
to:
--Cap the county HMO single rate at
$284 effective May 1. The employee health insurance contract
approved in April had an HMO single rate of $284 but no cap. Finance
chair Chuck Ruben said absence of a cap created problems for
Treasurer Mary Bruns. The insurance is with Health Alliance of
Champaign through the R.W. Garrett Agency.
--Allow signing of an intergovernmental
agreement to receive Geographic Information Systems money through
the Illinois Department of Transportation. County Engineer Tom
Hickman said he requested approximately $65,000 for high-resolution
digital aerial photography to scale covering the entire county.
Other items such as software and training bring the package to about
$100,000. In addition to Highway Department needs, he expects that
Supervisor of Assessments Rosanne Brosamer will utilize the
information to apply new land-use criteria for assessing farmland.
Hickman said that according to his request, which has been approved,
IDOT will pay 80 percent of the cost and the Highway Department 20
percent. To cover the department's share, he will ask for
contributions from other governmental bodies such as the assessor's
office.
--Experiment with Saturday hours at the
animal control facility for 60 days beginning April 28. The new
hours are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Saturdays. Only registration, payment of fines and animal pickup can
be accomplished on Saturday. Adoptions must take place during the
week.
--Pay R.L. High of Clinton $8,200 to
make emergency repairs to the courthouse roof to stop a leak in the
state's attorney's office. High will match original roofing
materials.
--Building
and Grounds Committee chair Dick Logan said the county expects a
$38,800 grant from the Department of Natural Resources to repair the
courthouse dome.
[Lynn
Spellman]
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Regional
precipitation conditions in Illinois for September-March also have
been very dry. The northwest and northeast Crop Reporting Districts,
or CRDs, were the driest on record (50 and 52 percent of average,
respectively). The west and central CRDs were the second driest (57
and 53 percent of average, respectively). The east CRD was fourth
driest (57 percent of average). With 73 and 77 percent of average,
respectively, the west-southwest and east-southeast CRDs were the
15th driest. Precipitation has been near average to above average in
the southwest and southeast CRDs, and they are not currently
experiencing a deficit.
Technically, these
data place the northern half of Illinois in a climatological
precipitation drought, and impacts are beginning to be observed in
other water resources of the state. Surprisingly, soil moisture
conditions within the uppermost 6 inches of soil are relatively near
average across Illinois, but subsoil moisture conditions vary
considerably. Observations from the southern third of the state
indicate above average moisture levels between 40 and 72 inches
below the surface, but conditions in parts of central and northern
Illinois in this layer are only 25 percent of normal.
Without a large
snowmelt this year, combined with the low precipitation, stream
flows along selected rivers and streams are showing below to much
below normal flows for this time of year in all but extreme southern
Illinois. Overall, current statewide flows are just 37 percent of
the median flow rates for the end of March and have been below
median rates since last October.
Shallow groundwater
water table levels in observation wells away from pumping stations
are also well below average levels and have been below the statewide
average for the last seven months. Overall, shallow groundwater
levels were below average levels for March by 2.2 feet. In northern
Illinois, the well at Mount Morris (Ogle County), where readings
began in 1961, reported a record low for March, and the well at
Fermi Laboratory (DuPage County) reported the lowest monthly level
in the 15 years of observation at that site.
[to top of second column in
this article] |
Reservoir data have
shown only slight impacts from low precipitation totals, primarily
because there are no public water reservoirs in the northern third
of the state. Some northernmost reservoirs are below normal levels
by a few feet, which is not considered a concern at this time, but
these conditions should be monitored closely for those reservoirs
not filled by the end of April.
Reduced precipitation
is present not only in Illinois but also over much of the Midwest.
Consequently, the water level in Lake Michigan this spring is at its
lowest since 1964. The lake is 2 feet below the normal for April and
only 8 inches above the record low level observed in 1964.
Fortunately, the
precipitation deficit has occurred during a period when monthly
rainfall totals in northern and central Illinois are typically low,
crops are not using water, and evaporation rates are considerably
lower than in warmer seasons. Thus, the primary potential impact of
the precipitation deficit currently is on agriculture. Above average
rainfall over the next several months is needed to recharge subsoil
moisture in dry areas as crop roots begin to tap into these depths
later in the summer. However, without a return to average
precipitation, rapid reductions in other water resources within the
northern half of Illinois may soon follow.
If history is a
guide, only two years of the remaining years in the top 10 driest
September-March periods had slightly above average statewide
precipitation amounts in the April-June period that followed (14 and
18 percent above average). Six of the years observed slightly below
average rainfall (6-16 percent below average), and precipitation in
Illinois within the following three months was less than 50 percent
of average in 1934.
For more information
on current precipitation conditions in Illinois, see the following:
[Illinois
State Water Survey news
release] |
