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Logan County Board
August Building & Grounds Committee Meeting
[August 16, 2025]
On Wednesday, August 13th, the
Building and Grounds Committee of the larger Logan County Board met
for their monthly meeting. This meeting was held in the Blue Room of
the Logan County Safety Complex starting at 6:00 p.m. All five
members of the committee were present. This included Chairman Lance
Conahan, Vice Chairman Hannah Fitzpatrick, Dale Nelson, Gil Turner,
and Jim Wessbecher.
After guests made their introductions and the previous month’s
minutes were approved, Conahan took the committee to old business,
of which there were three items. The first item was to see about
getting a backup internet provider for the courthouse when their
internet goes out. Conahan stated that he has been in contact with
Comcast, and they said they can provide a backup internet, but they
want another contract with the county.
The second item was for a proposal to modernize the exterior
elevator at the Logan County Courthouse. Conahan stated that he was
waiting for an update on that. The final item under old business was
for Heart IT. He stated that the Heart representative Sheila Fiepel
was going to be arriving at the meeting later, so he would come back
to it when she arrived.
This then led the committee to new business. There were six items on
new business. The first was an update on the courthouse restoration
project. Bill Walter was present at the meeting via video call to
give his update. Walter stated that there is going to be a meeting
between himself, several board members, and some of the companies
that have been doing work on the project. The goal of the meeting is
to address some issues being had with what work the companies have
been doing. Walter stated that he would like courthouse employees to
attend to bring up any issues they have been having as well.
Walter also stated that someone is going to be working on getting
the courthouse clock set to the right time. They also have someone
who is going to do the stained glass in the dome of the courthouse.
This same person also wants to work on the base of the dome. Nelson
then mentioned that some of the new windows are leaking air. He
stated that he does not want to send anymore payments before that
issue is addressed. Walter supported this idea.
The next item was an update on the scaffolding invoices. Previously,
the committee did not want to pay for the scaffolding, as they were
not sure that the bill American Scaffolding sent was accurate.
Katrina Sanders has been working with Walter on this issue. Sanders
spoke, saying that her rough estimate is that they owe American
Scaffolding about $170,000, but that number could be wrong. She also
stated that she is not sure where the company is getting their
amount owed from, stating several issues with invoices that she has
seen, including one that was overpaid and the county needs a refund
on.
Nelson suggested getting a third party to come in and conduct an
audit. He stated that until he knew the actual number, he was not
comfortable paying anything. Conahan stated that they would leave
that item on the agenda for next month to give Walter and Sanders
some more time to work on it before they brought in a third party.
The third item under new business was a bid approval for tree
trimming at Latham and Scully Park. Three companies sent in bids,
but the committee ended up going with the company Mad About Trees in
the amount of $4,600 for the trimming and $2,200 to cut down and
remove a dead oak tree.
The fourth item was a bid to remove
dead shrubs from the parks and edge the sidewalk. The committee had
two bids and went with Bee’s Landscaping for $1,800. The only issue
with this bid was that it did not mention edging the sidewalk. A
motion was made to approve this bid upon the contingency that edging
the sidewalk will occur and it will not make the bid higher than the
other bid.
For the fifth item, Conahan stated
that the Sheriff asked the board to get all of their items out of
the basement by August 15th. The last item on new business was to
discuss an approval for new furniture for the County Board office in
the courthouse. It was stated that the furniture would match the
other furniture in the courthouse and would cost just shy of
$15,000. The main issue addressed was that the office does not
currently have a divider to separate the Administrative Assistant
from people who come in her office the way other offices do. A
motion was made to approve this item.
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By this time,
Fiepel had arrived, so Conahan moved back to the item about
Heart IT. Conahan took the lead, asking Fiepel some tough
questions about Heart and the service they have been providing
for the county. Conahan stated that his biggest complaint had to
do with billing. He then brought up the fact that the county was
billed $1,500 for getting help setting up a computer. He then
stated that he feared that, since Logan County is a government
body, they may be being taken advantage. Fiepel stated that she
did not think Heart would be doing that.
Conahan then mentioned that the Health Department has been
having trouble getting IT help from Heart, as they have stated
that they need to spend more of their time at the courthouse.
Fiepel stated that she was under the impression that the
technician was calling all of the different locations they
service in the county whenever he came into town. Conahan said
that he would like to see the technician actually going to the
Health Department, the airport, and highway department in
addition to the courthouse each time he came in.
Conahan then mentioned that it might
be cheaper to hire someone to do IT work for the county rather than
paying Heart. He also stated that he felt it would be easier if they
had only one point of contact at Heart. Fiefel responded, stating
that Kerry Loveless, a Heart employee, is the person who meets with
counties. He goes to each area and lists the equipment that is
there, helping to create a plan so that the county can be ready
should there be an IT issue that needs to be resolved. She also
mentioned that she sent a firewall proposal to former Administrative
Assistant Katie Newman but never heard back.
There was some more back and forth about prices for things that led
to Conahan stating that, when the county’s contract with Heart runs
out, he will not be voting to renew it. Fiepel stated that, should
the county decide to hire one person for their IT services, they
would not be able to have all the skills on their own that her
entire team has, stressing the difference between paying Heart for
their services and having only one person. She also stated that the
last company that did IT services for the county left everything
very unorganized. Part of the issues they have been having with
Heart may have stemmed from the fact that they have had to take the
time to get things organized since they took over. She assured the
committee that, should they not renew their contract with Heart,
they would leave what they were working on in a much more organized
fashion for whoever came after them. She also thanked the committee
for bringing up their concerns and giving her a chance to fix them,
stating that she is always up for a challenge.
There was no facility managers’ report, so the committee moved on to
the two additional use of grounds requests that they had received.
The first was for Scully Part for the Recovery Walk on September
27th. There was an issue with the request form that was submitted.
The item was tabled until the issue could be resolved. The other
request was for a tree to be placed in the courthouse by the
Daughters of the American Revolution Abraham Lincoln Chapter for the
duration of 2026. The committee agreed to it so long as the
organization understands that the county is not responsible for any
damage that may come to the plant.
Turner then brought up an issue that had arisen with the county jail
expansion project. O’Shea Builders, the company overseeing the
expansion, needs builders' insurance before they start major
construction. This insurance would cover their tools and building
materials from things like inclement weather and theft. Turner
stated that this insurance would cost $5,740. Conahan stated that
this should have been included in the bid. Fitzpatrick stated that
the money for this should come from the jail expansion fund, to
which Nelson agreed. Turner then stated that he would bring it up at
the Workshop meeting the following day.
The final item that was discussed before the meeting came to a close
was about a new roof for the Logan Building. Conahan had received an
email from Jennifer Bryant informing him of roof issues. Conahan
agreed that the building would need a new roof. Nelson stated that
they would have to post bids to the public before any work could
start on the building.
[Matt Boutcher]
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