Logan County Board Building and Grounds Committee
September topics include piping music outside from the courthouse year round and a Touch a Truck event in October
Peat moss bog discovered on Safety Complex expansion site

 

[September 06, 2024] 

On the evening of September 3rd, the Building and Grounds Committee met for their monthly meeting. The members of this committee include Jim Wessbecher as Chair, Co-Chair Hannah Fitzpatrick, Emily Davenport, Micheal DeRoss, Robert Sanders, and Kathy Schmidt. The meeting was attended by all of the committee members with the exception of Emily Davenport. Several updates were given, and proposals made, including two Christmas events, which were proposed by Andrea Runge of Lincoln Economic Advancement and Development (LEAD). Lincoln Daily News will have additional coverage on this topic in the Monday edition.

After attendance was taken and the meeting called to order, the committee decided to immediately jump to public comments based on a special request made by Sheriff Mark Landers. The first and only public comment was an update on the Logan County Safety Complex expansion. Landers informed the committee that the contractors discovered a peat moss bog twenty-five feet underground where the expansion is being planned. This discovery, while not halting the expansion, will slow down the process. Committee member Kathy Schmidt asked if the contractors had worked on projects where this was an issue before. Landers informed the committee that the contractors had and were planning on speaking at the Workshop meeting later in the month.

Next came Runge’s two proposed Christmas events in downtown Lincoln. Runge discussed one more proposal after these that was not Christmas related. She spoke on the idea of having music played from the speakers around the Courthouse Square year-round. Runge reminded everyone that the committee uses these speakers to play holiday music around the holidays. Many people enjoy this, and she would like to expand the concept outside of just the later months of the year. Runge shared that the speakers could start and stop playing music at a set time each day, so as to not disturb residents that live nearby. She continued, stating that this would add to Lincoln’s ambiance and would help draw people to our town, boosting the local economy. Runge shared that her desire is to make downtown Lincoln “like a Hallmark movie.”

The committee members went back and forth on this idea a bit, with some comparing the idea to how Taylorville plays music from the speakers around their square on the weekends. Committee member Michael DeRoss then asked, “can it be heard from the courtrooms?” No one seemed to have an answer to this, and Chairman Jim Wessbecher commented that it could be a problem. Wessbecher then posed a few other crucial questions, such as who would get to pick the music and what types of music they would get to choose from. He also brought up a technical issue that had occurred with these speakers’ volume control previously, which resulted in many upset phone calls from residents.

Next, Bill Walters was supposed to give an update on the Courthouse restoration project. Walters, Wessbecher shared, had an accident that kept him from attending this meeting. Wessbecher then gave a brief update himself, sharing that new carpets for the offices had been ordered.

The last major order of business of the evening was a use of grounds request made by Tammy Bunner and Heather Martin. The two were looking to secure the use of Scully Park between the hours of 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 12th for an event called “Touch a Truck.” This event, which would be free to the public, would be geared towards kids and allow them to see and explore different kinds of trucks and vehicles. Bunner shared that she and Martin had already reached out to the Lincoln Fire and Police Departments to see if they would be willing to bring some of their vehicles out. A suggestion was made for the ladies to reach out to the National Guard and see if they would also be interested in participating. Bunner stated that she would look into this.

Several of the committee members got excited about this proposed event, especially DeRoss, who recommended that Bunner and Martin also reach out to the ham radio operator clubs in Springfield and Bloomington to see if they would be interested in getting involved too. The committee made a motion to add Bunner and Martin’s proposal to the agenda for the Workshop meeting later this month. The motion passed.

[Matt Boutcher]