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County Board Votes on Jail Funding
and Hires a New Administrative Assistant
[June 10, 2025]
On Thursday, June 5th, the
Logan County Board held a special regular meeting. The meeting was
held in the newly renovated second floor courtroom of the Logan
County Courthouse. While the meeting was supposed to start at 6:00
p.m., it did not actually start until about 6:35. This is due to the
board not having a quorum, or the minimum members of a group that
must be present for business to occur. In the case of the County
Board, that number is seven, just over half of their twelve member
total.
When 6:00 p.m. came, there were five members present, Chairman JR
Glenn, Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan, Gil Turner, and
newest member Kevin Knauer. Member Hannah Fitzpatrick came in a few
minutes late, and Joseph Kuhlman came in just after 6:30, rounding
out the needed seven. His entrance was met by cheers and applause
from several of the other board members. Kathy Schmidt, Bob Sanders,
Keenan Leesman, Michael DeRoss, and Jim Wessbecher were not in
attendance.
The first item the board discussed was the county jail expansion
project. The primary issue in front of the board was voting to
officially accept a bid from O’Shea Builders to get the expansion
project moving. The issue with this was the fact that the official
price of the expansion was significantly more expensive than the
initial estimate put it at. Originally, it was estimated that, to
expand the county jail, saving the most amount of money they could
to do so, it would cost about $6.8 million. The actual cost,
according to Craig Smith of O’Shea was about $7.4 million, a
$600,000 increase. The board currently has $6.3 million set aside
for the project, meaning that instead of a shortfall of just about
half a million dollars, they are actually over a million short.
It was discussed how the board
could find this money for the project. It was stated that money from
the broadband project could be taken and put toward this one. Avid
readers of LDN’s articles on the County Board will remember that the
state grant that was acquired for the broadband project was put on
hold due to federal funding for the grant being cut. The board also
stated that they get money back at the end of each year, and that
could cover some of the shortfall. The money the county is going to
get from permits from new energy projects could also help cover the
cost. The Community Benefit Fund (CBF) was also mentioned as a
potential source of funding.
Smith also brought up a few points. He stated that there is a three
percent windfall in the price that could come back to the county at
the end of the project. This three percent would be used to cover
extra expenses for unforeseen things the construction team might run
into. If everything goes according to plan, Smith said, that three
percent would be refunded to the county. This would be a return of
just over $200,000.
Turner stated that, in his opinion, it seemed like the board should
move forward with this plan. Nelson made a motion to accept the bid,
and it was seconded by Fitzpatrick. The board then voted unanimously
to approve the bid.
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Next, the board voted to go into
executive session. This executive session was to interview two more
candidates for the position of Administrative Assistant. Last month,
the board offered the position to one of several people who came in
to interview. From the time of that board meeting to this one, that
individual ended up turning down the offer. Everyone was asked to
leave the room except one of the two applicants. After about 45
minutes, and after the board had interviewed both applicants, the
board called everyone back in.
Once everyone was seated, Conahan
made a motion to hire Maddie Hinton as the new Administrative
Assistant. This motion was also unanimously approved.
The last issue discussed by the board was the Viper Mine closure
grant. To read more about this grant, please read LDN’s article on
June’s Zoning and Economic Development Committee meeting
here. The board was unsure if they wanted to apply for this
grant themselves, or to let the individual towns and communities in
Logan County do so, with the County Board writing each a letter of
support. The board had already received two requests to write
letters of support. If the board applied, they could bring the
individual towns under their umbrella. This, however, would then
mean that the board would be responsible for distributing the
amounts. If they did not get the entire amount they requested, they
would then have to decide who gets less and how much less for their
projects.
After this brief discussion, the a motion was made to adjourn the
meeting.
[Matt Boutcher]
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