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July Building and Grounds meeting
[July 07, 2025]
On Monday, July 1st, the
Building and Grounds Committee of the larger Logan County Board met
for their monthly meeting. The meeting started just after 5:30 p.m.
and was attended by all members of the committee. This includes
Chairman Lance Conahan, Vice Chairman Hannah Fitzpatrick, Dale
Nelson, Jim Wessbecher, and Gil Turner. Also in attendance were
Circuit Clerk Kelly Elias, Bill Walter, Katrina Sanders, and Kate
Wright.
After the introduction of guests, Conahan moved the committee on to
old business, of which there was only one item. This item was to
address the possibility of getting the Courthouse a backup internet
provider. At previous meetings, it was mentioned that the internet
would often go down with the current provider, Comcast. This leaves
the Courthouse and all of its employees without internet for an
undetermined amount of time.
Elias was present to speak into this issue, and she shared that,
even when the internet does not go down, it tends to get much slower
in the afternoons, citing that day as the most recent incident. I3
Broadband and Frontier were mentioned as possible choices for a
backup, if one were to be selected. Turner asked if the county has a
contract with Comcast, to which Nelson stated he did not think so.
He believed a contract was proposed, but that it was voted down when
Comcast stated they could not provide emergency response to the
courthouse for internet outages.
This then led the committee to new
business. These were seven items on their agenda. The first item was
an update on the Courthouse restoration project. Walter informed the
committee that the windows were just about finished. He stated that,
as of the day of the meeting, there were about fifteen windows left
to replace. He estimated that they should be done by the end of
July. He also stated that the renovation of the first floor
courtroom should begin in about two to three weeks. He described the
current process as “smooth,” stating “the results are way above
satisfactory.”
Nelson then mentioned an issue that has been occurring in Theresa
Moore’s office, the County Clerk and Recorder. He stated that
ductwork has been leaking since a window unit was removed and thrown
away. Someone stated that a new window unit would be purchased and
replaced, but that never happened. Nelson asked for assistance
cleaning up the leak, and also who would be paying for and replacing
a new unit. Walter stated he had been informed that CAD Construction
and Design would be paying for a new unit.
Conahan then brought up new legislation that will be taking effect
in 2027. This would require public defenders to have more office
space as they would have more people working in their office. It was
discussed renovating one of the third floor jury deliberation rooms
into an office for the public defender as it is larger than his new
space. Turner advised waiting to move the public defender as,
according to him, there have been a lot of changes regarding public
defenders recently, and he would not want to move him just to have
to move him back.
The committee then discussed creating a more permanent location for
the County Board to hold its meetings. They stated that the old
board office and the back room could be converted into a space.
Elias voiced concern that the space would not be big enough. Walter
informed her and the committee that the wall between the two rooms
could be opened up, making the space large enough.
Elias then mentioned that, with the current way the restoration
project is going, employees are having to go through other
employee’s offices to move things around. According to Elias, moving
things around is something that is done quite frequently, and they
need more direct pathways to the spaces they need to get to. Walter
stated that he could contact the architect and see what could be
done. He stated that it could effect the final cost of the project,
but also might not.
A few other small details were
discussed. Walter stated that there should be an estimate for the
creation of a holding cell on the third floor soon. Nelson asked
about a date for the start of replacing the stained glass in the
courthouse, which Walter stated would be August 1st. Nelson also
asked about when they would get an estimate for the first floor
courtroom renovation. Walter informed him that he already had the
estimates, they just needed to be approved. Walter also informed the
committee that the security space should begin renovations once the
first floor courtroom’s renovations are about halfway complete.
Conahan then moved the committee on to the next item on the agenda,
which was the approval of courthouse restoration invoices. He stated
that he would be working on them tomorrow and then bring them to the
Workshop meeting for the committee to sign off on them.
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The next item was
an update on invoices from American Scaffolding. Walter shared
that he has been in communication with the company via email.
According to American Scaffolding, two invoices have been paid
and another two are in a remittance. Walter shared that,
apparently, the company was taking payments for some invoices
and were putting them toward other invoices. When Fitzpatrick
asked why they did this, Walter’s response was “because they’re
stupid.” Nelson stated that he is not going to vote for any
payment to American Scaffolding until the county can determine
if all of the invoices they received over the past few years
have been paid. Nelson stated that he “can’t just hand over
$200,000 on trust.” Walter agreed. Conahan stated that American
Scaffolding’s lawyer was wanting to get this wrapped up as soon
as possible. He then asked if this would take another month.
Walter stated that it would take at least that long. He followed
that statement up by saying if the company had not made so many
mistakes, they may have a leg to stand on. This item was then
moved to old business for the committee’s August meeting.
The next item from new business was a
discussion on the retention policy on county emails from Heart IT.
According to the committee, there is an amount of time that emails
have to be held on to according to Illinois state law. This is in
the case of a FOIA request being made.The committee agreed that
Heart IT needs to be keeping county emails for at least the amount
of time required by the state, and that this is something they may
want to see about adding to their contract with Heart. The committee
agreed to look more into the matter this month.
Next was a discussion on allowing the Illinois Department of
Innovation and Technology to move into a county building. This was
an item proposed by Keenan Leesman at June’s regular board meeting.
Previously, they were located in the basement of Lincoln College.
They approached Lincoln Memorial Hospital for a space but were
turned away. After some discussion, the committee decided to talk to
Bret Aukamp of the Highway Department and see if he had room. If
not, they are going to suggest that they approach the city about
space.
The next item on the agenda was a proposal to modernize the exterior
courthouse elevator. Nelson shared that, should the current control
board in the elevator go out, they are going to have to replace it.
The cost would be about $180,000. They have been looking into
putting a wheelchair ramp in, but due to the height of the
courthouse entrances, the angle of the sidewalk, and the required
angle of a ramp, it would likely go out almost to the street. In
addition to that, the cost would range somewhere between $40,000 and
$140,000. The committee decided to leave this on old business for
now, but Nelson reminded them that if it goes out, it will have to
be replaced anyway.
The final item on the agenda was
the Logan County Tourism Bureau (LCTB) offering a few assets to the
county. The first was a pamphlet coral that they stated the board
may be able to place near the entryway to the courthouse. It was
stated that places like the Veterans Assistance Commission would be
able to place informational material in it. The other asset was the
kiosk on the Pulaski Street side of the courthouse. The LCTB
currently pays insurance on it, but will not be able to anymore
after they move back to The Mill, that being the only asset they
will be able to afford to insure. The committee decided to put this
item on the consent agenda for approval at the regular board meeting
later this month.
Next was supposed to be a Facilities Manager Report from Chris
Wilson. Wilson was not present and there was no report.
The last item on the agenda before public comments was a use of
grounds request by the Young Conservatives of Logan County to place
small flags in the courthouse lawn for the Fourth of July. This was
approved with little discussion. There were some questions regarding
approving a last minute request that is set to occur before the full
board would meet to officially approve it. Wessbecher stated that,
in the past, the committee has always approved it and sent it on to
the regular board meeting where it was approved, even though the
event had already taken place.
There were no public comments, but the committee did go into
executive session to discuss Facilities Manager Chris Wilson, who
the full board voted to reprimand last month based on what members
of the board called unprofessional behavior.
Once the executive session was over, the committee voted to adjourn
[Matt Boutcher]
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