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County board members voted not to participate in a
state-sponsored program that pays a portion of the county
engineer's salary from state and federal motor fuel tax dollars.
Those funds are set aside for road use.
Participation in the program would require raising Tom
Hickman's salary from $65,500 to $79,000, a 17 percent increase.
Dick Logan said that he could not agree with this. He said:
It is still using tax dollars. Tax dollars are tax dollars and
we are responsible in their use to the public. I had a lot of
phone calls on this and they agreed with me.
Terry Werth said that he received numerous calls saying the
same.
There was some discussion on how much the county has and
continues to save with Hickman setting up and overseeing the
geographic information systems.
The vote was 10-2 against entering the program, with Chuck
Ruben and John Stewart favoring it.
The engineer's salary will continue to be paid as it has been
through the county's general budget.
["State program offers county option in paying engineer's salary"]
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A motion to raise the county employee health insurance cap
was approved. The change will meet the new HMO policy cost,
which increased from $303 to $326 per month.
The policies were accepted last month. At first the board was
going to leave the increase difference for employees to pick up,
but many of the employee contracts indicate full coverage.
We have always met the lower-cost policy, Dick Logan said,
and I think we need to continue to do that. Employees have the
option of a higher-cost PPO, which is now at $374. If employees
want to get the PPO, they will pay the difference on that, he
said
The difference between last and this year's caps total an
additional $37,812 per year.
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[to top of second column in this article] |
 The county agreed unanimously to commit $5,000 toward the
development of a new comprehensive plan. Those funds come from
when the Lincoln/Logan County Enterprise Zone was extended to
the Formosa plant in Illiopolis. The plant offered to give
Lincoln and Logan County $5,000 each every year to use toward
regional planning expenses.
The Logan County Regional Planning Commission is spearheading
the project. The cost for the new plan has been set at $55,000.
Chairman Bill Glaze will visit communities in Logan County,
asking for their participation as well.
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The county is requesting that an additional 100 days be added
to their annual contract with McLean County to house juveniles
in detention. The county gets a rate of $80 per day rather than
$90 with the contract. The 120 days contracted have been used
already.
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The completed county audit is expected to be in board
members' hands by June 14 for discussion at next month's
meeting.
The audit is needed by the board to assess the current
financial standing. The health department needs it to get
payment for one of their grant-funded programs.
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Approval was given to borrow $300,000 for 60 days, not to
exceed 1 percent over prime in tax anticipation notes. Due to a
tight budget, the county is expected to fall short of funds at
the end of the fiscal year before property taxes can be
collected.
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Scully Park will be used for Dog Daze on June 18.
[Jan
Youngquist] |
