Logan County Board to hire new Zoning Officer and begin budget process

 

[August 16, 2022] 

At the Logan County Board Workshop on Thursday, August 11, the board set the agenda for Tuesday’s voting meeting.

Several action items will be voted on Tuesday including:

Planning and Zoning Committee update

The board went into executive session at Thursday’s workshop to discuss personnel matters regarding the hiring of a Zoning Officer candidate.

Once the executive session was ended, Planning and Zoning Committee Chairman David Hepler announced the board had approved hiring Tom Sowers as Logan County Zoning Officer/Assistant Economic Development Director.

At the Planning and Zoning Committee meeting earlier in the month, committee member Keenan Leesman gave an update on the broadband project. Leesman and Logan County Economic Development Director/Zoning Officer Beth Davis-Kavelman have been working on a broadband grant through the state.

For some of the information, Davis-Kavelman said they are relying on [Telecommunications Service Provider] WANRack to input it.

In the grant, the state wants to know of anybody living within 100 feet of a roadway. That would include owners, business owners or tenants.

This grant is the most comprehensive one Davis-Kavelman said she has ever seen. She is working hard on it. After this grant, there are three more grants to do to get all the available money for the proposed broadband fiber project.

The original timeline for the state grant ended last month, but Leesman said time has been extended due to further rules and regulations. He said they are in good shape working on it. The deadline extension gives them more time to finish it.

Currently, Davis-Kavelman said they are waiting on the state to get all the rules and regulations. She is not sure how long the grant deadline will be extended.

Planning and Zoning Committee Chairman David Hepler asked if the broadband project is still following the same basic design discussed several months ago.

The only difference Leesman said there is with prevailing wage requirements. They had to make some tweaks on what they can fund. To get in under the same price point, they had to take Chestnut and Middletown off the plan. These areas could be added in at a later point.

The [fiber optic] network will run through Route 66. Davis-Kavelman that will be less burdensome to people and travelers.

Once the project has been started, Leesman said they are looking at a timeline of 18 months to two years to complete the laying of fiber.

Internet service providers would pay WanRack to attach to the trunk and would bring the service to customers from the fiber. It has not been defined how long this process would take.

The Logan County Board approved allotting $3.5 million of its $5.5 M federal award of ARPA (covid recovery) funds to go toward broadband expansion.

County department heads to justify staffing and needs for new budget

As the Finance Committee prepares to work on the 2022-2023 budget for the county, Finance Committee Chairman Steve Jenness said he created budget templates for department heads.

The budget templates are something Jenness feels will help department heads give rationales for why there are increases in various line items.

One area Jenness put on the template is raises. Jenness said he knows employees wants raises. Department heads want to be able to give raises to keep good employees.

What Jenness would like to see is research of similar sized counties to see what their budgets are. He said our county may be behind and need to increase budgets. We may also find the county is right in line with other counties.
 

Something else Jenness wants when researching other counties is how many personnel they have. He wants department heads to justify or make a reasonable case for adding new personnel or why they need the number of employees they have.

With equipment or software upgrades, Jenness would like department heads to give rationale why it would make their work more efficient.

Next month, Jenness hopes to meet with department heads individually to discuss the budget.

The board is expected to approve the Logan County Circuit Clerk’s Salary for the 2022-2023 at $75,000.

Insurance and Legislative Committee

On the voting agenda:

Approving a resolution for appointing election judges for certification.

Approving resolutions for appointing Beth Nelson and Gary Davis to the Logan County Mental Health Board and Jean Lynn to the Logan County Housing Authority.

Executive and Personnel Committee

Adding a Division on Addictions to the Logan County website resources page.

Road and Bridge Committee

Awarding a construction contract to Reiners and Westen to place Rip Rap under a bridge on County Highway 14.

Closing Highway 6 in Beason on September 17 from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. for their Sesquicentennial parade.

[Angela Reiners]