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Finance Committee Decides on
Community Benefit Fund Guidelines
[June 12, 2025]
On Tuesday, June 10th, the
Finance Committee of the larger Logan County Board met for their
monthly meeting. This meeting kicked off at 5:45 p.m. in the Blue
Room of the Logan County Safety Complex and was attended by all five
committee members. This includes Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Vice
Chairman Joseph Kuhlman, Lance Conahan, Keenan Leesman, and Dale
Nelson. Also in attendance were Andrea Runge, Ben Crombie, and
Dorsey Hill with the Lincoln Economic Advancement and Development
(LEAD), as well as board member Kevin Knauer.
At the start of the meeting, Runge, Crombie, and Hill gave a
presentation over some information they brought to the committee
regarding the Community Benefit Fund (CBF). Previously, Finance had
requested that LEAD put together some information from the board
members regarding how they felt the CBF should be used. In past
meetings, the Finance committee has been struggling to define
‘community benefit’ and exactly what the CBF should be used for and
what it should not be used for. Lead brought forward the results of
a survey they conducted among the board members as well as a report
on the results. Part of the survey was what the primary goal of the
CBF should be. There were seven areas for board members to choose
from. These areas were economic growth and job creation, quality of
life improvements, attracting new residents, supporting underserved
populations, promoting art, culture, or local pride, investing in
long-term infrastructure, and increasing access to essential
services. The highest voted item was quality of life improvements,
followed by attracting new residents, and then a tie between
economic growth and job creation and long-term infrastructure.
At the end of the presentation,
Runge was also asked to give her advice on the Viper Mine grant that
is due at the end of the month. For more information on this grant
and exactly what it entails, please see LDN’s other article on the
matter
here. The committee asked if they should let every taxing body
in the county submit their own applications and requests, or if they
should do it as a county and distribute the funds. Runge stated that
“the cat is out of the bag” when it comes to doing an overarching
application as a county. The application is already live and many
places are already working on their applications.
Runge did state, however, that since this grant is good for six
years, they may be able to do an overarching application next year.
When asked whether or not the county should apply themselves, Runge
said to do it. Everyone who applies is guaranteed $25,000 so long as
they meet the criteria. Also, Logan County may get additional money
for other projects they are working on.
After this, the committee went back to discussing the CBF
guidelines, with Leesman providing sample documents he had drafted.
These documents were a sample of the CBF guidelines and a sample
application, or intake, form. Leesman was not set on any of these
documents, but said now that he has the information from LEAD’s
survey, he can use that to revise his documents if the committee
wanted.
Next, the committee discussed the idea of putting a dollar amount
limit on all requests from the CBF or having it be a percentage of
the total project amount. Schmidt was in support of the percentage
option, but other members of the committee felt otherwise. Leesman
also pointed to the results of the survey, stating it indicated that
over 90 percent of the board preferred the dollar amount option.
Kuhlman then brought up the idea of having set limits for different
tiers. Schmidt wanted to know what the tiers would be, and Nelson
suggested going off what the survey said. Schmidt then asked the
committee if they wanted to keep donations for community events such
as Nashville Nights and Up in Smoke at $500.
Nelson voiced a concern he had about the money all going to people
putting on events in Lincoln. He mentioned doing something like
setting a limit of $250 for Lincoln events since there are always so
much more than other areas. Schmidt mentioned that the other
communities may not be aware that they can ask for money from the
CBF, and that is why they do not. Leesman argued that it should be
the board member’s responsibility to talk about the CBF with the
people in their districts.
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Leesman then
suggested that, instead of limiting the dollar amount based on
where you live, that limiting each town to a set number of
requests a year may be a better option. He also suggested it be
based on population, so places like Lincoln, where there will
likely be more events, have more requests to use. The idea of
letting each city make three requests per year was brought up.
Kuhlman was not sure about this idea. He mentioned that he would
not want people to not be able to make a request because their
event is later in the year. According to Kuhlman, this would be
like punishing those people for having events later.
The committee then took a short conversational detour to talk
about Cresco. According to the committee, Cresco is supposed to
pay the county a set amount each quarter based on their profits
to operate within the county. Schmidt mentioned that they have
not made their payment for the last quarter of 2024, the first
quarter of 2025, and, at the end of June, will also have not
made a payment for the second quarter of 2025. She has written
several letters to them regarding this, but have not heard back.
It was mentioned that this is a breach of contract based on what
both parties agreed to. States Attorney Brad Hauge is going to
be sending Cresco a certified letter discussing this issue.
After Cresco was discussed, the committee went back to talking
about the CBF. It was mentioned that $500 should be the limit to
start, but that the committee can modify this amount at any time
if they feel it is not enough.
Leesman also brought up the idea of keeping track of the
requests being made. If the board gives $500 to someone for an
event, Leesman suggested they ask for a one page report stating
how the event went and how the $500 was spent. For larger
projects, the board should require a budget of how the money is
going to be spent when the application for funding is submitted.
Conahan then suggested having a $10,000 limit for the larger
projects, so long as they are in the top three categories the
board members voted on in the aforementioned survey.
It was finally settled that there would be a $10,000 limit on
larger projects, a $500 limit on smaller events, and each
community would be limited to five requests per year. Leesman
stated that he was going to rework his guidelines and intake
form to match what they had discussed, then email it to all of
the committee members before the Workshop meeting on Thursday,
June 12th. Since the motion could not be made or passed in the
committee meeting due to a lack of finished paperwork, Schmidt
will make a motion at the Workshop meeting to vote on Leesman’s
modified documents once all committee members have had a chance
to look them over.
Before the committee moved on to their next item, they discussed
an application for funding from the CBF that had been made by
the owner of Heart and Flour Equal Kneads Bakery. Leesman was
unsure if this request met their CBF guidelines. His primary
issue was whether or not this business was a for profit
business. He understood that the bakery would be hiring people
with special needs to work there, but was uncomfortable with the
idea of providing money to a for profit business. If the
business was a non-profit, he stated, that would be a different
story. Conahan suggested that they have the owner refill out the
CBF form after it is passed at the Workshop meeting, then
re-address this issue and have the owner come in to speak at the
next Finance meeting in July.
Nelson then had to leave for work, but
he volunteered to work on the Viper Mine application for the county
with Runge. The committee then made a motion to send the
application, as well as Nelson being the one to take the lead on
filling it out, to the Workshop meeting for a vote. It passed.
The board then moved on to discuss a new firewall proposal for the
Courthouse, the liquor license request for the Korn Krib, funding
for the Logan County Tourism Bureau, and next year’s budget. For
information on those items, please read LDN’s other article on this
meeting. [Matt
Boutcher] |
