From Logan
County Courthouse Centennial to glass collection
[OCT. 28, 2005]
Century-old building the center of attraction
The Logan County Courthouse will be celebrated
for its 100th anniversary on Nov. 5. A parade downtown begins at 1
p.m. and a ceremony at the courthouse starts at 2:15. Courthouse
tours are scheduled for the afternoon also.
New Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau director Geoff Ladd said that
he'll work at getting the word out to other parts of the state to
come join us that day.
Not too far away, another courthouse of note continues to receive
added attention. Shirley Bartelmay said that attendance at Postville
Courthouse has been up since the opening of the Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library in Springfield.
She was pleased to say that they now have 40 volunteers to
provide tours at Postville. However, there is more need than ever to
cover all the tours that are taking place. She said that two to
three volunteers need to be there all afternoon every day in order
to keep tours moving when several different groups at a time arrive.
She has training days planned for anyone interested in
volunteering.
Increasing technology and expenses need supervision
Along with new budget decisions, board members recently
considered how to plan for unanticipated technology costs. Risks and
costs of the new networked computer system that includes Internet
were considered of greatest concern.
John Stewart pointed out that there was $6,000 in repair bills
from just one company, Viscon, last year. He said he just finished
looking at $4,000 in bills from them for three repair calls in just
three months. He pointed out that if one of the departments had
something like a virus spread, there could be even higher costs, not
to mention that it could shut down a department for a week or share
the virus with other departments on the network.
There have also been unanticipated upgrades that have been
required by some departments to keep them current and functional.
Stewart said, "This is going to get worse before it gets better."
The addition of GIS will add further to costs and risks, he said.
Finance chairman Chuck Ruben said that the finance committee has
also considered these concerns. They looked at the potential of a
department being hit with excessive costs in any given year, or if
one office installs a communal technology, who should pay the bill?
Ruben said that the finance committee made a
recommendation to the technology committee that the costs could be
shared evenly by all departments. This would keep anyone from having
to deplete or run over their budget. Last year's $6,000 in bills
divided between all 19 offices would mean only $315 each for the
year. He said that there shouldn't be any office that couldn't
handle a cost like that.
The technology committee was just recently reinstated to review
and monitor technology needs, use, repairs and bills.
The county's planning and zoning committee, which was
reinstituted this past year, has been compiling information
concerning zoning issues and making some recommendations to the
Logan County Regional Planning Commission. This month they made
recommendations that affect the county ordinances, manufactured
housing, affordable housing and land use. All of these areas need to
go into the county's comprehensive plan.
County coordinator Dewey Colter was given the part-time zoning
officer position a couple of months ago, with the task of evaluating
the planning and zoning department and zoning ordinances. The
department's staffing was cut back a number of years ago, and Colter
has been working on remedying a quagmire of problems that have
developed related to shortage of staff and the lack of updating the
zoning ordinances.
He has identified a number of specific issues and sought workable
solutions. First, he customized a plan that other counties are
successfully using for code enforcement. The adjudication process
will particularly help in getting nuisance properties cleaned up.
That process will be started after the new budget begins.
He has also identified a number of outdated or poorly written
zoning ordinances.
Committee chairman Dale Voyles recommended a plan to the planning
commission. He suggested that a task force develop the work that has
been identified that needs to be added to the comprehensive plan and
that some part-time labor be added to the planning and zoning office
to do the paperwork. Colter has been asked to consult and supervise
that work.
Debt certificates
The board plans to amend a resolution that passed last month
allowing the county to finance the Sysco project using debt
certificates. Finance chair Chuck Ruben said he received information
that the total amount borrowed, $980,000, will remain the same;
however, the variable amounts of interest will cause the payments to
vary from year to year. Attorney Jonathan Wright recommended that
the resolution be amended to read, "payments up to $49,500 per year
for 20 years." Ruben agreed that he'd like to keep it legal. It will
be presented with the amendment next month.
Kevin Hyde from First Midstate is managing the certificates,
which will be fulfilled by borrowing money from the State Bank of
Lincoln and other county banks.
Logan County Health Department compliance
The Logan County Health Department recently completed a five-year
needs assessment for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The staff has been getting National Incident Management
System-compliant in bioterrorism. All staff members will be certified by the
end of November.
These actions help qualify the agency to receive state and
federal grant funds.
Glass breaks… records
Waste management chairman Pat O'Neill reported that recycling
closed their season by breaking collection records, with over 24,000
pounds of glass brought in during August and September.
The Lincoln Woman's Club assisted with the collection on the
second Saturday of each month in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
