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Logan County Board
July Workshop Meeting
[July 14, 2025]
On Thursday, July 10th, the
Logan County Board met for their monthly Workshop meeting. This
meeting, where the board discusses and brings forth items to be
voted on at their regular meeting the following week, started at
6:00 p.m. and was held in the second floor courtroom of the Logan
County Courthouse. All members were present with the exception of
Keenan Leesman. Members present included Chairman James Glenn, Vice
Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan, Michael DeRoss, Hannah
Fitzpatrick, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman, Bob Sanders, Kathy
Schmidt, Gil Turner, and James Wessbecher.
The meeting began, as all Workshop meetings do, with introduction of
guests and the approval of the previous month’s meeting minutes.
Once those two were finished, Nelson, who was leading the meeting,
moved on to public comments. There was only one public comment this
month, and that was from Michelle Fuller. Fuller has come before the
board a few times since May to request a letter of support from the
board. Fuller, who homeschools her children, is standing with other
Logan County homeschooling parents against a bill that would more
heavily regulate homeschool curriculum. Fuller stated that she had
received the letter from Glenn and thanked him, as well as the full
board, for their support.
Once Fuller’s comments had come to a close, Nelson moved on to
committee reports, starting with the Building and Grounds committee.
Conahan, the chairman of that committee, stated that he had asked
several individuals from Hart IT, the company the county receives
their IT assistance from, to come before the board and speak on an
issue that has been coming up during their committee meetings. A
couple of representatives from the company spoke on the current
system the county uses to store emails.
According to the Hart IT personnel,
the county does not currently have a system in place to house emails
for as long as they need to for FOIA requests. While emails can be
recovered, they stated, if those emails are deleted, there is
nothing that can be done to recover them. If they get a system
through Hart IT, the company will capture and save emails as soon as
they reach county employee accounts. This way, even if emails are
deleted, Hart will still have a copy of them saved. Glenn asked for
a list of options and prices, and the Hart employees stated that
they believed it would be around $6 per account, with around 125
accounts active at the moment. There were other discussions about
other systems and services Hart could offer, but it was ultimately
agreed that they would come back to talk in more detail at the
August Building and Grounds meeting.
The next item Conahan brought forth was scaffolding invoices. He
stated that the Treasurer’s office is still doing an audit into how
much American Scaffolding has been paid. Due to some issues at
American Scaffolding, the county is unsure if the invoices sent to
them are all needing to be paid, or if some of them have already
been paid. Action on that item is pending the completion of the
audit.
Next was the decision of whether or not the county wanted two assets
from the Logan County Tourism Bureau (LCTB). The first is a kiosk
that is on the courthouse grounds, while the other is a brochure
holder. The kiosk would need to be insured, and the LCTB can no
longer pay for that insurance. It was stated that, since the county
already has insurance for the courthouse and the grounds around it,
they would likely just need to inform the insurance company that the
kiosk is now going to be a part of that insurance plan. As for the
brochure holder, Conahan stated that he was sure the LCTB would help
keep it full of pamphlets. A motion was made to move this item onto
the agenda for next week’s regular board meeting.
The next item was an update on the renovation to the women’s
bathroom. Conahan stated that this renovation should take about two
to three months. In that time, the men’s restroom will be converted
into the women’s restroom and porta potties will be brought to the
courthouse grounds for men. Glenn asked if this was really the best
option. Conahan informed him that CAD Construction, the company in
charge of the renovations, stated they were going to pay for the
cost of the porta potties. A suggestion was made to bring a portable
restroom trailer rather than porta potties. Conahan stated his
doubts that CAD would pay for that, and Glenn told him they needed
to push back and negotiate with them on that.
There were a few more short items for Building and Grounds. Conahan
made a motion to move a request by the Young Conservatives of
Illinois to place American Flags in the courthouse lawn for the
Fourth of July. Even though the Fourth is over and the flags were
already placed, the board still needs to officially approve the
request. Conahan also gave an update on the courthouse renovation,
stating that the renovations to the first floor courtroom should
begin some time around September. Nelson stated that he is going to
talk to Bill Walter about that, as he remembers being told it would
begin in August.
Next was Executive and Personnel,
of which there were no items. This was followed by Finance, whose
committee chairman is Schmidt. She started by making a motion for a
credit card for the new Administrative Assistant Madelyn Hinton. The
limit of this card would be set at $5,000. The next item was it
being necessary for all departments that have not already done so to
reimburse the county (specifically the Building and Grounds
committee) for Hart IT’s services. When the contract with Hart was
signed in 2024, it stated that each department would pay for their
services out of their budgets. Schmidt then read an email from
Nelson to the former Administrative Assistant Katie Newman in which
Nelson informed Newman that this was to be the case. Schmidt stated
that Newman never got this put into place, and so the bill for many
department’s IT services was coming out of the Building and Grounds
account.
The last two items from Finance were brief, with the first being a
tax sale and the second being a Counties of Illinois Risk Management
Agency (CIRMA) insurance renewal. The tax sale had a motion made to
be added to the regular meeting agenda next week. The CIRMA renewal
was simply an update, with Schmidt stating that she spoke with
someone at CIRMA, and they told her that the July 14th deadline did
not need to be done immediately. They told her that someone would be
reaching out to her the following day to discuss this further.
Conahan then spoke again, this time on a memorandum of understanding
with the city of Lincoln. Previously, both the city and county
agreed to give the LCTB $30,000 per year for two years. This came
after the city of Lincoln, who used to previously fund the LCTB with
their hotel/motel tax, pulled the funding in favor of creating a
Lincoln Tourism Department. The county has been seeking a memorandum
of understanding with the city to both ensure neither group will
pull the $30,000 they contributed, as well as outline the
collaborative nature both groups will have working together for
tourism going forward.
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Conahan shared that the city
declined to sign any memorandum with the county, stating that their
funding agreement will be solely with the LCTB. Conahan then stated
that he was unsure if the county should be providing the LCTB with
any funding without some written agreement with the city. This was
met with agreement from several other board members. Glenn asked if
the city understood the nature of the memorandum, to which Conahan
stated he believes they at least understand the part about the
funding agreement. He then also stated that the city is looking to
have ultimate veto power over anyone who wants to sit on the board
as well as the director. This was met with much disagreement from
board members. Conahan stated that the city would give the county
ultimate veto power over regional planning.
DeRoss then spoke, starting by stating that the regional planning
offer is a “red herring.” He stated that counties and cities each
have their own regional planning according to the county code. He
stated that the city already has a regional planning group over
which they have veto power. He then stated that the agreements each
group has with the LCTB will not mirror each other. DeRoss stated
that the county's agreement will state that they have two seats on
the LCTB board, but the city’s agreement will state that the county
will have no seats. DeRoss then brought up the idea of taking the
“whole thing from them” by finding the $60,000 in funding themselves
and not having Lincoln involved at all. He then called what the city
is doing a “political power play.” DeRoss continued, saying “they
want the money, but they don’t want to wear the jacket for killing
the tourism bureau… I resent that.”
Nelson then brought up the idea of bringing Lincoln Mayor Tracy
Welch to Tuesday’s board meeting to clear the air. Conahan then
mentioned that there could be a misunderstanding, and this sentiment
was mirrored by Kuhlman. Kuhlman stated that, as far as he is
concerned, he is going to continue to assume good will from the
city’s side at this point. Glenn stated that he would like the board
to see if they can find the full $60,000 just in case, and that he
is going to talk to Welch and report back what he learns. This item
was tabled pending an update on Tuesday.
Conahan then stated that Finance forgot one item, and that was to
propose hiring a part-time Administrative Assistant. He stated that
the county has been getting hit with a larger than normal number of
FOIA requests recently. This has all been placed on the new
Administrative Assistant Hinton, who is still trying to learn her
role. He stated that someone brought on for twenty hours a week to
help respond to these FOIA requests would go a long way. Glenn
agreed with this, stating that he would not want to see Hinton leave
after just being hired. Several other board members asked for
details such as a cap on the amount of money they would pay this
person, an end date, and how much they would be paid. It was agreed
that a motion to do this would be made at this meeting, and then
amended at next week’s regular board meeting.
Nelson then moved on to the new
Safety committee, of which there were no official items or motions
to bring forward. Sanders, who acted as chairman for this month’s
meeting, gave a brief overview of what was talked about in the
meeting. Schmidt also mentioned that, since the Safety committee
meets only thirty minutes before the start of the Finance meeting,
they might start pushing the start of the Finance meeting back
thirty minutes to give Safety a full hour.
Turner then spoke next, giving a report on the kick off meeting for
the county jail expansion project that he attended. He stated that
Greg Doolin is no longer the O’Shea Builders project manager
overseeing the expansion. This role is now filled by Jackee Mooney,
who, after seeing speak in the meeting, Turner stated he had full
faith in. He also stated that the project is set to start on July
28th, with weekly meetings being held each Wednesday to provide
updates on the project. If everything goes according to plan and
there are no slow downs, the expansion should be finished on May 5th
of next year.
The next committee to bring items forward was Transportation, with
Wessbecher being the chair of that committee. Wessbecher brought one
motion forward, and that was a construction contract with Stark
Excavating to build two box culverts in Eminence Township.
The last committee was Zoning and Economic Development, chaired by
DeRoss. DeRoss brought forward two motions for two solar facilities
to be built by Apex Clean Energy. DeRoss also informed the committee
that both the Zoning Board of Appeals and Regional Planning had been
canceled this month due to a lack of quorum. He also stated that
Zoning and Economic Development Officer Al Green has been having
some meetings and has stated that the county’s current fee system
for permits is outdated. The current permit system charges by the
amount of land used, where many counties now charge by the energy
output the energy projects will produce. This is something that may
be coming before the board for a vote on in the next few months.
After this, Glenn gave his chair’s report, stating that the county’s
road use agreement needs to be done soon. With the current
presidential administration pulling a lot of funding for renewable
energy, Glenn stated, they will have to have their current projects
done within a certain timeline. If the projects are not done by
then, they will need to apply for a new Federal Aviation
Administration permit, and that may prove more difficult than it has
been.
Once Glenn finished his chair’s report, the board voted to go into
executive session to discuss items under the Executive and Personnel
committee.
[Matt Boutcher]
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