Logan County Board
September Regular Board Meeting
[September 22, 2025]
On Tuesday, September 16th, the
Logan County Board met for their regular board meeting. The meeting
was held in the second floor courtroom of the Logan County
Courthouse starting at 6:00 p.m. All but one of the board members
were present for the meeting, the missing member being Gil Turner.
Present members included Chairman JR Glenn, Vice Chairman Dale
Nelson, Lance Conahan, Michael DeRoss, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman,
Keenan Leesman, Bob Sanders, Kathy Schmidt, Jim Wessbecher, and
Hannah Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick and Glenn both arrived shortly after
the meeting had started.
Of the items discussed at this meeting, the biggest one was for the
siting permit of a new solar farm around the current Sugar Creek
wind farm in Sheridan and Cowin Townships. For information on the
discussion on that item, and how the board ultimately voted, please
read LDN’s other article
on the topic.
After an invocation was given and the Pledge of Allegiance recited,
Nelson, who started off leading the meeting in Glenn’s absence,
moved to approve the consent agenda. Conahan mentioned that he
wanted a few details changed regarding the minutes for the Building
and Grounds committee meeting. The amendment was approved, and then
the consent agenda itself.

Next were public comments. There
was one public comment, with that being from a representative on
behalf of REV Renewables, the company looking to build the new
aforementioned solar farm. The representative presented the pros of
solar energy, such as being able to restore agricultural land to its
original state at the end of the project. She continued, saying that
they want to continue to work with the county on this project. She
ended by sharing that these projects provide a lot of tax money for
local schools and infrastructure.
This then led the meeting to the action items from each of the
committees. The first committee addressed was Building and Grounds,
whose chairman is Conahan. There were three items he presented, the
first being a $182,710 improvement to the exterior elevator of the
courthouse to keep it from breaking down. This motion was passed
unanimously.
The second item was also an upgrade to the courthouse, that being a
$374,470 improvement to the base of the dome. Nelson asked if a
schedule was ever provided. Conahan read what he had received from
project manager Bill Walter, but no specific dates were provided,
something Nelson stated that he was looking for. He shared that he
wants to be able to keep the contractors doing work like this
accountable, hence wanting to have an end date for their work to
have them uphold. This item was also unanimously approved.
The final item was to approve Jaytech Water Solutions to come and
upkeep the geothermal system under the courthouse for $3,500 for the
year. This motion was also approved unanimously.
The Executive and Personnel committee was the next one up. There
were two action items on their agenda, both appointments. The first
appointment was for David Welch to Union Drainage District number 1.
The second appointment was for Randy Awe to Broadwell Special
Drainage District number 1. Both appointments were approved
unanimously.
The next committee was Finance, and there were many action items
brought forth. The first of their nine items was a motion to hire
Bellwether in the amount of $12,000 to assist the county in making a
budget for the next fiscal year. This was approved unanimously, as
was the next item, a motion to approve a $6,500 donation for
Workcamp for Lincoln from the Community Benefit Fund. Nelson had a
question about this item, asking if it was for members of the county
or simply Lincoln. Schmidt and Conahan informed him that it was for
anyone in Logan County. Leesman wanted to know how other places in
the county were going to get informed and engaged on this event.
Conahan shared that they had asked the representative from the
organization to send them something that they could push out to the
other towns and cities around the county. Knauer also made the
clarification that there is no income requirement for someone to
apply to have their house worked on.
The next item was for a predictable fee schedule. Glenn informed the
board and those in attendance that this would be for things such as
recording deeds and easements. With no discussion on the matter, it
was approved unanimously. The three items after that were all tax
sales, which were approved unanimously.
The seventh and eighth items on the agenda were for salary increases
for the Public Defender and Sheriff respectively. These items were
set by the state, and the majority of the funds to cover these
salary increases comes from state funding. Both of these were
approved unanimously.
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The final item was
regarding broadband, something the county has not discussed in
great detail in some time. The action item read “motion to
approve RFP for Broadband.” DeRoss pointed out that the county
does not yet have an RFP (request for proposal) and proposed an
amendment that would change it to say that the county would
write and issue an RFP for the project.
Glenn then gave a brief history on broadband and how it ended up
here. He said that while they did have a commercial partner
previously, that partner pulled out of the project. LDN can
confirm that this previous partner, while not named at the
meeting, was WANRack. The state money for the project, however,
is still available and will be so long as the project is
finished by the end of the year in 2026. The county’s two
options are to take out another bond or find another commercial
partner who will help with the cost.
Leesman then provided some details on
the specifics of the project. According to him, the goal of
broadband would be to expand fiber optics and internet access to all
places in the county. It would be open for anyone to build onto once
it was completed, that way no one company would be the one to
benefit. The county would receive a percentage of the profits this
project brings in, with more people using it resulting in greater
profits. The amendment was voted on, then the motion as amended.
Both were also approved unanimously.
The next committee was Safety, with three action items. The first
two items were regarding the Logan County Paramedic Association (LCPA).
Committee Chairman Knauer introduced the first item, a $100,000
payment to LCPA. According to Knauer, they would make three separate
payments of that amount rather than paying $300,000 all at once.
This motion was approved unanimously. The second item was to approve
an updated contract with LCPA, which was also approved unanimously.
For the final item, Knauer deferred to Glenn, as the motion involved
Knauer himself. The motion was to approve Knauer to the Logan County
Emergency Telephone System Board. This motion was approved 10-0,
with Knauer voting in abstention.
Transportation was next, with Wessbecher being the Chairman of that
committee. The only action item brought forth was to approve an
agreement with “Hanson Professional Services to design the final
section of the 5th Street Road Project.” This was approved
unanimously.
The final committee addressed was the Zoning and Economic
Development committee. The first item ended up being the most
contentious item of the evening. The details of this item, the
siting approval for the new Sugar Creek solar farm, can be read
about in LDN’s other article.
When the solar farm discussions finally came to an end, committee
Chairman DeRoss introduced the second item. This item was to change
the permit fees for new solar and wind farms. The current permit
fees are based on height (for wind turbines) and amount of land used
(for solar farms). This new permit fee system would change the
amount charged to $4,000 per megawatt of energy generated by the
project. Zoning and Economic Development Officer Al Green shared
that this would keep permit fees around the same amount for wind
turbines as they were when the fees were first implemented but would
increase for solar panels. The reason a larger number was not
decided on was that it would make it harder for others to argue that
Logan County is trying to price people out and prevent them from
creating solar and wind farms, something that is illegal to do by
state law. This item was passed unanimously.

The final item from Zoning and
Economic Development was to approve PIVOT energy. With no
discussion, this item was approved 10-1, with Schmidt being the only
one to vote no.
The final item of the night was the Chair’s Report. Glenn only had
to share that there were some inquiries recently into building data
centers in the county. Circuit Clerk Kelly Elias also asked to
share, saying that Logan County is hosting this year’s Circuit Clerk
Conference. She stated that 86 out of 102 county Circuit Clerks are
participating, the highest turnout in the last 23 years of the
conference. Glenn thanked her for sharing and then the meeting was
adjourned.
[Matt Boutcher]
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