Logan County Board Workshop Meeting
Board Discusses Issues of Maintenance at the Courthouse

 

[September 14, 2024] 

On the evening of September 12th, the Logan County Board met for their monthly Workshop meeting, where they prepare for the following week’s Regular Board meeting. This meeting saw an in-depth update on the Logan County Courthouse restoration as well as a detailed discussion on the subject of whether or not to pay for the insurance of non-union employees. For more information, feel free to read Lincoln Daily News’s separate articles that go into much more depth on these topics and what was discussed.

The Workshop meeting saw eleven of the twelve board members in attendance. The members in attendance included Michael DeRoss, Dale Nelson, Jim Wessbecher, Emily Davenport, Hannah Fitzpatrick, James Glenn, Joseph Kuhlman, Keenan Leesman, Bob Sanders, Kathy Schmidt, and Gil Turner. The only board member absent was Julie Bobell.

After the Pledge of Allegiance was said and the previous month’s minutes approved, the board jumped into a time for public comments. This month, the Workshop meeting only saw one public comment, and that was from non-union employee Lisa Bobb. Bobb brought up some of the issues that she brought up in the Finance Committee meeting regarding the board discussing insurance. For more information on Bobb’s comments, please see LDN’s article on the issue of insurance.

The board then moved to making motions to bring specific items off the floor and onto the itinerary for the Regular Board meeting next Tuesday. Building and Grounds was the first committee to discuss items, with a motion being made to approve a Touch-a-Truck event that is being planned for mid-October. For more information regarding the planning of that event, please read the latter half of LDN’s article covering the Building and Grounds Committee meeting for September here. The motion was approved. Another motion was made regarding the annual Trick or Treat with the Mayor event. A motion was made and approved to move this off the floor as well.

The final order of business for Building and Grounds involved a motion to approve funding to hire D&D Electric to do some work involving the third-floor restoration of the courthouse. For more information on this motion, as well as the other courthouse restoration updates that were given during this meeting, please find and read LDN’s article on the topic.

After a lengthy discussion on the courthouse and funding, the Executive and Personnel Committee made three motions to move items off the floor. These motions involved appointing personnel at Atlanta Fire Protection, Chestnut Fire/EMS, and Carroll Catholic School. All three of these motions were moved off the floor.

When the Finance committee’s turn came around, they agreed to move a motion for funding for Regional Office of Education (ROE) #17. This motion was approved, and the item added to Tuesday night’s itinerary.

A topic that ended up coming up at several points during the meeting was who oversees maintenance in the courthouse. More specifically, several courthouse employees, including Circuit Clerk Kelly Elias, wanted to know who they were supposed to contact when issues came up. This was discussed at the tail end of the last Regular Board meeting, but no definitive answer was given. Bill Walter, the Building Restoration Consultant, gave some answers, stating that the employees should either contact Chris or Derek (no last names given). Walter said that either of these two men would be the people to call. Elias shared that, since the last meeting where this issue was discussed, they had been contacting Trevor as they all see him more frequently than Chris or Derek.

About half way through the meeting, Sheriff Mark Landers came in. When an appropriate time came around, Sheriff Landers shared that he had been listening in on the meeting’s Google Meet call and wanted to come in to clarify who to call in maintenance situations and allow people to ask him questions directly. Seeing as how he is Sheriff, Landers shared that the courthouse is his responsibility.

One of the main maintenance issues workers in the courthouse have been having are the lights, specifically them staying on when they are supposed to be off. “If I put brand new lights in my house and they weren’t working, I’m not going to ask my wife to handle it, I’m going to ask the person who put the lights in,” stated Landers. He went on to say that he is not sure why the electrician who installed the lights has not been called to fix them. “I have got a couple of maintenance guys who are available to fix maintenance stuff, not restoration stuff,” Landers continued. Landers then opened himself up to answer questions relating to topics of maintenance.

Nelson then asked Landers who should be contacted in case of maintenance issues. Landers shared that county employee Trevor was assigned to the courthouse for maintenance issues and should be their first contact. If it is something more than Trevor can handle, he would contact Derek who would come over to handle it. Landers then clarified that Chris does not answer to Landers, as he was hired as a part of the restoration project, of which Landers is not in charge. Elias then asked for clarification that if there is a light or HVAC issue, that they are not to go to Chris. It was stated that Chris should be contacted in cases of anything that is still under contract with a contractor. The board and Sheriff Landers were not sure if the HVAC system was still under the purview of the contractors, or if it had officially been turned over to the county. If the contractors did turn it over to the county, then it would be Sheriff Landers and his maintenance crew’s responsibility to upkeep and maintain.

The final order of business was two items from the Transportation committee. These were both construction contracts that were moved off the floor and onto the itinerary for the Regular Board meeting. This meeting will take place on the first floor of the courthouse on Tuesday, September 17th, starting at 6 p.m.

[Matt Boutcher]