Logan County Board and Department of Public Health updates: Gro Alliance to expand; new fuel pump for airport; new medical and dental services under SIU

[March 29, 2017]  LINCOLN - At the Logan County Board's Regular meeting on Tuesday, March 21, the board voted on several motions, resolutions, and appointments and heard updates from a few committees.

Planning and Zoning

At the Regional Planning Commission meeting on March 1, commission members heard John Endsley of Gro Alliance in Mount Pulaski talk about expansion plans for space to condition soybeans.

Endsley said Gro Alliance contracted with a company who will require Gro Alliance to "have a third of their annual production and static one-time storage." He said to commission members, "We do not have that [amount of storage area] currently. To meet their demands, we are looking at 27,400 square feet of expansion at the warehouse inside the property that we own there."

Logan County Zoning Officer Will D’Andrea had said since Gro Alliance is located in an agricultural zoning district, but their use is classified as agricultural business use, any kind of expansion requires conditional use approval.

Both the Regional Planning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals recommended approval.

The board unanimously approved Planning and Zoning Chairman Scott Schaffenacker's motion to approve the Conditional Use request from Gro Alliance, LLC.

Airport and Farm Update

The board unanimously approved Airport and Farm chairman Gene Rohlfs' motion to accept engineering estimate for Project AAA-4317 described as renovate the gas fuel dispensing system at a total of $220,584.40.

Rohlfs said that the airport share in doing the project 10 percent, which is $22,058.44.

Health Committee update

Public Health Administrator Don Cavi for the Logan County Department of Public Health gave a brief report.

Cavi said their audit showed a surplus of $43,000, so that looked good. He said they are still waiting on payments from the state.

Cavi said the new medical and dental clinic that will be run by SIU School of Medicine is set to open in April.

Cavi said the Liquor Commission has asked the health department to do liquor inspections. He said the inspections may bring in $5,000 in revenue.

Road and Bridge update

The board unanimously approved two resolutions for road and bridge repairs.

Road and Bridge Chairman Bob Farmer's first motion was to approve awarding a contract for sealcoat work in three townships to Illinois Road Contractors.

Farmer's second motion was to appropriate $15,000 from the County Bridge Fund to assist Laenna Township to place riprap under a bridge.

Insurance and Legislative update

Besides approval of insurance providers, the board voted on one resolution and several appointments brought forward from the Insurance and Legislative Committee.

The board unanimously approved to recognize National Crime Victims' Rights Week.

The board also unanimously approved the appointments of Glenn Shelton and Norma Bathe to Board of ETSB, Jerry Purcell to Latham Fire Protection District, and Tom W. Cross to Board of Logan County Water District .

Safety/EMA update

At the March Workshop, Logan County Emergency Management Agency Director Dan Fulscher said all board members and department heads would need to have a National Incident Management System training and test.

Fulscher said he could go quickly through the training and they could do the test. He would need an hour.

Ruben said it could be done before the board meeting on April 18.

[Angela Reiners]