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Logan County Board
October Workshop Meeting
[October 17, 2025]
On Thursday, October 16th, the
Logan County Board held their monthly Workshop meeting. This is
where motions are made for items to vote on at the regular meeting
the following week. This Workshop meeting was held in the
second-floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. The meeting
was set to start at 6:30 p.m., but it did not start until closer to
6:50 due to the Executive and Personnel Committee meeting held
before running over time.
Of the twelve members of the board, eleven of them were present.
This included Chairman James Glenn, Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance
Conahan, Michael DeRoss, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Kevin Knauer, Joseph
Kuhlman, Keenan Leesman, Kathy Schmidt, Gil Turner, and Jim
Wessbecher. Bob Sanders was the only member who was not in
attendance. Also present were Lisa Renfro, Sheriff candidate Josh
Pharis, State’s Attorney Brad Hauge, and Logan County Clerk and
Recorder Theresa Moore.
After the previous month’s minutes were approved, Nelson, who was
leading the meeting, moved the board onto the committee reports,
starting with Building and Grounds. Conahan, who is this committee’s
chairman, gave the report. Conahan started by bringing forth a
motion for a use of grounds request for the Downtown Lincoln
Wonderland Festival that is set to run from November 22nd to January
1st. He also shared that the organizers of the event are looking to
get an insurance writer through the Logan County Tourism Bureau for
their insurance for the event, something the county board requires
all events to have.
The second and final item that Conahan brought forward was for the
Hallelujah lights and Halloween lights. For these lights to be
placed at various locations around Lincoln, the total cost will be
$6,479.60. Leesman asked if the county was purchasing these lights.
Conahan clarified that this was for the cost of renting, as well as
the labor to put them up and take them down. Conahan also clarified
that the amount for these lights would be coming out of the
Community Benefit Fund.
The next committee was Executive and Personnel. The first motion
that Nelson made was to accept some changes that were being made to
the Logan County employee handbook. Nelson clarified that these
changes were to update for some new laws that were passed as well as
bereavement leave. The next item was for a resolution regarding a
legal holiday. This item was not clarified on.
After this, Nelson entertained a motion to discuss a request for
proposals (RFP), for employee benefit brokerage services. The
purpose of this motion was to find a new broker for employee
insurance. It was stated that there was some interest that has
already been shown in this.
Next, Nelson entertained a motion to not accept any more
applications for battery storage or data centers until the county
can get some ordinances in place regarding these facilities. This
conversation led the board away from Executive and Personnel and
into Zoning and Economic Development. DeRoss, the chairman of the
Zoning and Economic Development committee, stated that he was not
sure the county would be allowed to do this by the state. He said
that, while they could try it, not to be surprised if “the state
throws it back in our faces in the next six weeks.”
Leesman asked Nelson for some clarification on the matter and wanted
to know if he was looking to stop applications for any storage, or
just commercial storage where a company would be selling the energy
they were storing. Nelson stated that this would be the latter.
Leesman then asked what the county was trying to protect themselves
from, as this was some of the verbiage that was used, regarding data
centers. He understood battery storage but did not see a threat from
data storage centers. Nelson and Glenn clarified that there is
currently no ordinance in the county regarding these centers, and
that anyone wanting to open one does not have to follow any
guidelines in doing so. This conversation continued for some time.
Nelson agreed to change the item to reflect more specific verbiage
before the next meeting.
The next committee was Finance,
whose chairman is Schmidt. She brought forward a motion for a tax
sale, but that was all. Safety was the next committee. Knauer, the
committee chair, stated that, when a motion was made and voted on
last month for a contract with the Logan County Paramedic
Association, a resolution number was not assigned to that and would
need to be done. Nelson confirmed with Hauge that this was something
the county could do without breaking any laws, and he stated that it
should be fine. After this was Transportation, and chairman
Wessbecher stated that there were no items to bring forward this
month.
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The final
committee report was for Zoning and Economic Development. DeRoss
stated that the committee is currently working with Zoning and
Economic Development Officer Al Green to put some penalties in
place for when ordinances are broken. Besides that, there were
no other items or updates from DeRoss.
Glenn then gave an update, sharing that Top Hat Wind Farm had
been sold. He said that he talked to some of the heads of the
company and wanted members of the board to get a letter from
them. This letter would be from the new owners stating that they
understood their responsibilities to the county, specifically
regarding the terms of their decommissioning at the end of the
life of the project.
Glenn then asked Nelson if there was anything else he wanted to
add from Executive and Personnel, hinting that something may
have been missed from earlier. Nelson confirmed that there was
and entertained a motion for a reduction in force for the
Facilities Manager position effective October 21st.
Schmidt then raised her hand to ask a
question. She stated that, years ago when the county board was first
being approached about wind farms, she remembers something being
said about them having to be in contact with the county about
something every five years. While no one else on the board was
exactly sure what she was referring to, DeRoss stated that they do
have to send in reports every year. He continued, saying that this
is something most of the energy project companies have not been
doing, hence why his committee is trying to put penalties in place
for ordinance violations such as these.
Next was an update on the Broadband project from Glenn. He stated
that, several months ago, WANRack, the company that was partnering
with the county on the project, stepped away from the negotiating
table. This was due to a disagreement on how the project was to be
funded on the county’s end. From there, he and Leesman had been
getting several phone calls from the state wanting to know why the
Broadband project was not getting started, as the state had provided
the county with a grant for the project. The state then went and
talked to WANRack, getting them back to the table.
Now, the project appears to be back on track and may be ‘alive’
again after Friday. The current financing agreement is that Logan
County is going to pay monthly installments for their portion of the
project over the course of ten years. These payments will be
interest free. The state needs to officially approve this agreement,
something they are set to decide on this Friday, October 17th. Glenn
did say that, should the state not approve this agreement, that
Broadband “would be dead again.”
Leesman added a few other details, saying that this would give the
county a revenue share, providing them with another possible source
of income, as well as new economic development sources, as the
project would provide fiber optics and internet to the entire
county.
The final item discussed was by DeRoss. He stated that, according to
Representative Bill Hauter, the energy bill may potentially pass the
current veto session. This is something that Hauter had previously
told DeRoss he was fairly sure was going to fail. DeRoss stated that
there seemed to have been some changes, but he was not aware of what
they were. This bill, from what has been discussed at previous
committee meetings, would likely have a large impact on the energy
projects in Logan County.
With this, Nelson asked if there were any public comments. When he
saw there were none, he entertained a motion to adjourn.
[Matt Boutcher]
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