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Logan County Board
August Workshop Meeting
[August 18, 2025]
On Thursday, August 14th, the Logan
County Board met for their monthly Workshop meeting. This meeting,
where items are discussed and added to the agenda for the regular
meeting the following week, was held in the second floor court room
of the Logan County Courthouse starting at 6:00 p.m. Eight of the
twelve members were present, including Vice Chairman Dale Nelson,
Lance Conahan, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman, Bob
Sanders, Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher. Members absent included
Chairman JR Glenn, Michael DeRoss, Keenan Leesman, and Kathy
Schmidt.
The meeting began as all Workshop meetings do with the Pledge of
Allegiance, followed by introduction of guests. Nelson, who was
leading the meeting, then opened up the floor for public comments,
but there were none.
This led the Board to action items from each committee, starting
with Building and Grounds. Conahan, who is this committee’s
Chairman, shared a few items that were added to the regular
meeting’s agenda. Three use of grounds requests were approved,
including the Walk for Recovery, Touch-a-Truck, and the Daughters of
the American Revolution. Conahan also announced that both Latham and
Scully parks are going to be closed to the public on Friday, August
15th and Monday August 18th. The reason for the closure was to allow
the company Mad About Trees to trim the trees at those parks.
Before moving on to the next
committee, Turner brought up the need for builder’s insurance for
the county jail expansion project. He stated that this needed to get
on the agenda soon, as O’Shea needed the documentation. He also
shared that they had two quotes, one at around $6,000 and one at
about $9,000. Nelson asked if this was going to be coming out of the
jail expansion fund. Turner argued that he believed it should be
coming out of the county’s insurance fund. Nelson then suggested
taking it out of the Buildings and Grounds funds, to which Conahan
objected. Nelson finally recommended taking the amount out of the
general fund and there were no objections.
Next was Executive and Personnel, but Nelson shared that they did
not meet quorum this week, or the minimum number of members that
must be present for the meeting to take place. There were a few
motions that were made by Conahan, however. One was for the
appointment of Sal Pollice to Regional Planning, another to review
and update the ethics ordinance, one for a raffle from the Mt.
Pulaski Historical Society, and one final motion for the appointment
of Randy Awe to the Broadwell drainage district number one.
The next committee was Finance, of which they had fifteen items to
bring forward. Many of these items were tax sales. The first item
was for positive faith fraud protection for county bank accounts.
Kuhlman, who was presenting the items in Schmidt’s absence, stated
that insurance for each account would cost $15 per account. The next
item Kuhlman brought forth was for the appointment of Jennifer
Bryant back to the position of Supervisor of Assessments with a
salary increase and a stipend for the additional GIS
responsibilities she has had to undertake.
The next item discussed was the funding for the Logan County Tourism
Bureau (LCTB). It was stated that the county would give them a lump
sum of $30,000 for the year. Fitzpatrick asked if the city of
Lincoln was funding the LCTB monthly, to which Conahan confirmed
that they were. He also confirmed that the city would not enter into
an inter-governmental agreement with the county. Wessbecher then
mentioned that the county should also pay monthly.
The next item brought forward by Finance was a soil and water
conservation budget request. A very brief conversation was held over
this item covering where the funding for this would come from. All
of the other items brought forward by Finance were regarding tax
sales. There were eleven of them.
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The next committee
addressed was the recently formed Safety Committee. Committee
Chairman Knauer stated that there were no action items. Nelson
stated that the broken water line at the Logan County Animal
Control building, something that was brought up at last month’s
Safety meeting, was fixed.
The next committee was the Transportation Committee, and
Committee Chairman Wessbecher had two items to bring forth. His
first item was to approve the appointment of Maddie Hinton for
the position of Program Compliance Oversight Monitor. The second
item was to take $144,000 from the county bridge fund to put
toward a bridge project on Highway 24 near San Jose.
The last committee was Zoning and Economic Development. Seeing
as how Committee Chairman DeRoss was absent from the meeting,
Knauer presented the two items that they had to bring forth. The
first was to finalize the approval of allowing Top Hat to build
an access road to one of their windfarms.
The second item was to approve a siting permit application for a
solar farm from Prairie Creek Solar. Laura Tobben was present on
behalf of Prairie Creek Solar to speak on the project. Tobben
informed the board that it would be a 31-acre community solar
project. There would be about 12,800 solar panels that would
power about 2,000-2,500 homes with the electricity they would
generate. She also stated that these homeowners should see a
reduction in their electricity bills. She also stated that this
site would generate about $30,000 of tax revenue each year.
Nelson had two concerns, the first of which was regarding the
vegetative screening that would be placed around the solar farm
to keep people from having to see it. Tobben informed him that
the farm was being placed pretty far away from homes, with the
exception of the property owner who is allowing their property
to be used. She also stated that there will be vegetative
screening on two sides of the solar farm.
Nelson’s last concern was regarding which homes were going to be
receiving the electricity this project would be generating.
Nelson stated that the solar companies that come before them
usually use the term ‘community solar,’ but that he feels the
term is misleading. According to Nelson, ‘community solar’ leads
people to believe that the power generated will be given to them
when that is not always the case. Tobben stated that, as a civil
engineer, she did not have the answer to Nelson’s question.
The last thing mentioned before the
meeting ended was by Zoning and Economic Development Officer Al
Green. Green brought up the need to increase permit fees for the
energy projects that have been coming to the county. This is
something that was discussed at length at this month’s
Zoning and Economic Development Committee meeting. Green shared
that, after discussing it with Chairman Glenn, they are going to try
to get the increased permit fees pushed through quickly.
Without any announcements or a chair’s report, Nelson entertained a
motion to adjourn, bringing the meeting to a close.
[Matt Boutcher]
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