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County Board June Workshop Meeting
[June 16, 2025]
On Thursday, June 12th, the
Logan County Board met for their monthly Workshop meeting. This
meeting was attended by all members with the exception of Chairman
JR Glenn. This included Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan,
Michael DeRoss, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman,
Keenan Leesman, Bob Sanders, Kathy Schmidt, Gil Turner, and Jim
Wessbecher. This meeting was held in the second floor courtroom of
the Logan County Courthouse starting at 6:00 p.m.
There were many guests, with most of the seats in the courtroom
being taken. Some of the guests present were Josh Pharis, who is
running for Sheriff, Scott McCoy, the new director of the Lincoln
tourism department, Zoning Officer Al Green, and Bret Aukamp of the
Highway Department.
After the Pledge of Allegiance and the introduction of guests,
Nelson moved the board on to public comments. The first comment was
from Tory Williams. Williams is the school board president for the
Warrensburg-Latham school district. She was at the meeting
requesting a letter of support from the board to apply for the Viper
Mine grant.
The next comment was from Bobbie Taylor. Taylor and her husband,
Daryl, were present and made it known that they were not for the
proposed Black Jack solar project that is to be built, should it be
approved, west of Mt. Pulaski.
Michelle Fuller then spoke, thanking the board for their support
opposing HB 2827. She also stated that she wanted to see how this
issue was going to progress. For more information on HB 2827, please
see LDN’s article on the subject from May
here. Nelson then mentioned that they will be writing a letter
of support and should have that to Fuller on Friday.
Molly Pickering, president of the
Logan County Tourism Bureau (LCTB) then spoke. She asked the board
for their support in funding the LCTB. Avid readers of LDN may
recall that Lincoln City Council and the County Board are both
considering funding the LCTB differently than they have been funded
previously. For more information on this, please read LDN’s article
on the joint County Board/City Council meeting
here. Gail Apel-Sasse, then handed out some brochures that she
brought for the board that the LCTB hands out to visitors.
The last person to speak during public comments was Pharis. He
thanked the board for agreeing to the county jail expansion project
and helping make the facility up to code for state law.
After this, Nelson led the board to the committee reports, starting
with Building and Grounds. Committee Chairman Conahan moved to make
a motion to approve the use of grounds requests from Logan County
Pride, the Juneteenth Festival, and the Lincoln Area Music Society.
Previously, these requests were not approved due to a lack of proof
of liability insurance. All of them have since submitted this proof.
The board moved these items on to next Tuesday’s regular board
meeting. In the case of Logan County Pride, they will be
retroactively approving their event, as that event was already held.
Conahan then brought up his second and final item from Building and
Grounds. This was an approval for a bill from American Scaffolding
for work they provided for the courthouse restoration project. The
committee was unable to get the invoices from the Treasurer’s office
before this meeting to confirm that they were not being double
charged for anything. Nelson stated that he was uncomfortable
approving this bill due to the possibility of double paying. Conahan
amended his motion to state that the bill would be approved pending
the invoices were acquired and an audit was conducted before
Tuesday’s meeting. After this amendment, this item was moved on to
Tuesday’s meeting.
This then brought the board to the
Finance committee. The first issue that committee chairman Schmidt
brought forth was bringing new Community Benefit Fund (CBF)
guidelines off the floor for approval. The committee did not have
the guidelines in hand, as committee member Leesman was tasked with
writing up the guidelines after their Finance committee meeting just
two days before this meeting. DeRoss asked if a copy could be sent
to be reviewed before the regular meeting on Tuesday. Leesman stated
that the guidelines and application/intake form are finished, he
just could not get them into the packet the board was given for this
meeting, but that it can be sent to the board members. Nelson then
added that they were discussing making it a live document so that,
if the guidelines were not working and needed to be amended, they
could do so from month to month. DeRoss asked if this document would
be able to be digitized, to which Nelson stated that they could work
on making that happen. This was then sent to Tuesday’s meeting.
Next, Schmidt made a motion to approve liquor licenses for the Korn
Krib and The Lodge off 66. Both of these businesses had turned in
all of their required paperwork for their licenses before this
meeting. This item was sent to Tuesday’s meeting as well.
Schmidt then made a motion to approve funding to the LCTB in the
amount of $30,000. This item was followed by a very lengthy and
detailed discussion. For a breakdown of this discussion and
everything that was said, please read LDN’s other
article focusing
on this issue specifically.
This was then followed by a motion to have Logan County apply for
the Viper Mine grant. This, like the aforementioned LCTB issue, was
followed by a lengthy discussion. For a breakdown of what this grant
is as well as what was discussed during this part of the meeting,
please read LDN’s article focusing on the Viper Mine grant
discussion here.
After these three issues, Nelson then turned to Wessbecher, chairman
of the Transportation committee, for anything his committee had to
bring forth. Wessbecher started by bringing forward an agreement
with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for federal
funds to pay for half of a county engineer’s salary. This was
followed by a resolution to approve a county engineer salary for
2025 in the amount of $130,866. The motion stated that the salary
would be paid for using motor tax funds and federal transportation
funds. Wessbecher then brought forth a bid for snow removal for the
airport. This motion would approve up to about $113,000 for this
removal and would provide the equipment for it to be done. The last
item Wessbecher brought forward was for tree removal of two large
trees near the airport at the cost of $3,900. All of these items
were sent to Tuesday’s meeting.
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This then took the
board to their final committee, which was Zoning and Economic
Development. Committee chairman DeRoss started with the item of
home occupations. He stated that after some discussions, someone
is going to reach out to DCFS and have them reach out to the
certified daycares in Logan County. They are then going to get
basic information on these locations and provide them to Logan
County dispatch. At previous Zoning and Economic Development
committee meetings, it was stated that having information
available to first responders can be beneficial in informing
them how they should respond. For a further breakdown of this
topic, please see LDN’s article from June’s committee meeting
here.
Nelson then asked if the board is still looking at making people who
run home occupations give a list of everything they have in their
homes to dispatch. DeRoss clarified that they do not want a full
list of all items, only ones that could provide a potential danger
to first responders. He used an example of having equipment to
reload ammunition, and that first responders may need to know about
this if they are going into that house for a fire. Nelson then asked
about how the county is going to enforce this ordinance. DeRoss
stated that this is going to be largely complaint driven. DeRoss
said that this would start with a conversation with the business
owner, and if they did not comply, they would contact the State’s
Attorney to see if there are any legal options the county would
have. Green clarified that there are no fines in this ordinance for
not following it.
The next item DeRoss brought forward was a request for a variance to
American Patriot Pyro’s current agreement with the county. America
Patriot Pyro has a storage facility in Logan County that it uses to
house fireworks that are used for fireworks shows that are put on by
government bodies. The variance they were requesting would allow
them to expand their storage to hold more fireworks. Clint Myers was
present on behalf of American Patriot Pyro and spoke on their
request. According to Myers, they use storage units in Sangamon
County, but that location is up for sale. They are preparing for the
possibility of losing that location and having to store their
fireworks elsewhere. This item was moved to next Tuesday’s meeting.
The next item brought forth by DeRoss was a presentation by a
company called Apex Clean Energy for two proposed solar projects.
The first is called Black Jack solar and will be located just west
of Mt. Pulaski. The other project is called Water Point Solar and is
proposed to be located northwest of Lincoln, just to the west of
where I-55 splits into I-155. Both of these projects were similar in
their size and scope. Dillon Walton of Apex gave a presentation
sharing some of the details. According to the presentation, both of
the projects would each generate about $1.1-$1.2 million in tax
revenue for Logan County over their forty year life span. Walton
also stated that it would create 25 full-time jobs during the
construction, which are both poised to take between six and eight
months to complete.
Nelson then asked Walton if they
can move the solar project so the line of sight for the Black Jack
project does not block the line of sight for the residents who live
on the same parcel as the proposed project. Walton explained that
they were trying to avoid the wetlands to the west and get as close
as they can to the substation south of the property. Nelson argued
that it seemed Apex was more concerned with saving money than being
a good neighbor. Several other board members then voiced
understanding of why the Taylors did not want the project going up
where it is. As shown in the photo above, the project would be very
close to the Taylors’ residence. The yellow square indicates the
Taylors’ residence, and the green vertical lines indicate the
location of the proposed project. They also shared that their front
door faces south, which would put the solar project in their line of
sight outside of their front door.
More discussion on this issue was had. Walton informed the board of
vegetative screening (the use of plants to block the view of the
solar panels) that Apex is planning to use for its projects. He also
assured the board that Apex would install additional vegetative
screening if the landowners requested. Green informed the board that
Apex had gotten rid of the southernmost row of panels upon
requirement for approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).
Nelson argued that the benefits of the energy the solar farms
produce will not be to Logan County, as the energy is sent out of
the county. Other members of Apex present informed the board that
anyone who gets their energy through Ameren will be able to
subscribe to this project specifically and receive their energy from
it exclusively. Wessbecher asked about using union labor, to which
they confirmed that they would. He further argued that they are
likely going to use union labor from Springfield, creating minimal
jobs for Logan County residents. With all of the concerns addressed,
DeRoss made a motion to move this issue to Tuesday’s meeting, which
was seconded by Leesman.
The last item brought forth by
DeRoss was a request by Top Hat to get use for a parcel of land that
will give them access to one of their wind farms. The land owner has
given the okay for the land to be used for the duration of the
construction, but Top Hat still needs the board’s approval. Aukamp
informed the board that he believed this to be the best choice and
urged them to approve it. This item was moved to Tuesday’s meeting
as well.
Nelson then moved the board to announcements. Conahan thanked Hinton
for coming in for the meeting. Green also informed the board that
they have a potential candidate to replace the missing planning
member.
Before Nelson could call for a motion to adjourn, the board
remembered that they had not gone over items from Executive and
Personnel. The four items brought forth from that committee were a
motion to approve Theresa McKentire to fill trustee for the Logan
County cemetery maintenance district, a raffle for Mike Block for
Sheriff, a queen of hearts drawing for the Central Illinois Veterans
Commission (CIVC), and a raffle for the Railsplitter Coin Club.
These items were all sent to Tuesday’s meeting.
Nelson then called for a motion to adjourn.
[Matt Boutcher] |
