Logan County Board
Building and Grounds committee meets for first time in the new year
Dale Nelson new chair with Gil Turner as vice

 

[January 15, 2025] 

On Monday, January 13th, the Building and Grounds committee of the Logan County Board met for their first meeting of the new year. This meeting started at 5:30 p.m. in the Blue Room at the Logan County Safety Complex, 911 Pekin St. in Lincoln.

Of the four members on the committee, all were in attendance. This included Chairman Dale Nelson, Vice Chairman Gil Turner, Hannah Fitzpatrick, and Jim Wessbecher. Wessbecher and Fitzpatrick are returning members to this committee, with Wessbecher having previously been Chairman and Fitzpatrick Vice Chairman. Also in attendance was Kathy Schmidt, although she is not on this committee.

The first order of new business that was discussed was the purchasing of new phones for all departments overseen by the County Board. The price of these new phones would have been $16,175. Wessbecher suggested that, should each department determine that they need new phones, they should take it out of their budgets to replace them. This point was not challenged by any of the committee members, and the item was moved to old business for next month's meeting.

The second item discussed was an update on the Logan County Courthouse restoration. Judge Jonathan Wright sent an email out about the heat not turning on and the temperature in parts of the courthouse. It turns out that, the way the system was set up, both the heat and the AC were set to be on. When the heat got certain parts of the courthouse to the right temperature, the AC would kick on and get it back down to a lower temperature. This issue was able to be resolved.

It was also revealed that the Courthouse roof is still leaking. This issue was addressed recently, and the board was assured that this issue was resolved. Someone will be coming in later in the week to take a look at the roof again.

The next order of business for the evening was the committee’s refusal to sign a bill paying a contractor from Normal to clear the clutter off the roof. According to the board, it was one of the contractors they had hired that left the mess there, and so it should be the responsibility of that contractor to clear up that mess. Chairman Nelson stated that he wanted to follow up with some questions before he would sign that bill.

The last thing the committee discussed for the evening was Logan County Pridefest. There was a request to use the Courthouse lawn on June 7th of this year. The committee stated that before they could approve the use of the grounds, they would need a copy of the insurance the organizers of the event have. Nelson then called for a motion to adjourn.

[Matt Boutcher]