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2025 Year in Review
Local governance continues to dominate headlines in the second
quarter of 2025
[January 08, 2026]
In the second quarter of 2025,
once again news from the Lincoln City Council and Logan County Board
continued to dominate the headlines in Lincoln Daily News.
Among the hottest of topics was what to do with tourism in Lincoln
and Logan County.
The issue began when Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch recommended that the
city council consider re-vamping the hotel/motel tax distribution.
For the past several years, the lions share of the hotel/motel tax
collected in Lincoln has been passed through city coffers to the
Logan County Tourism Bureau, with the city keeping only a small
portion for local projects.
In Logan County, the vast majority of motels are located within the
city limits of Lincoln. The city collected the taxes from those
motels, then sent the majority of the money to the tourism bureau
where it was used to promote tourism throughout the county.
Welch said he wanted to see that money go toward promoting tourism
in the community where it was raised, namely in Lincoln. He proposed
a City of Lincoln Department of Tourism.
With Route 66 running through Lincoln, and 2026 being the 100th
anniversary of that historic highway, Welch felt that the city
needed to do more to attract Route 66 Tourism.
At the same time, Welch said he did not want to see the county-wide
bureau go to the wayside and would support an annual funding
agreement to that bureau providing that the Logan County Board would
also contribute an equal amount.
This led to discussions at both the city and county that happened on
a regular basis throughout the second quarter of the year and well
into the third and fourth quarters as well.
With aldermen agreeing that the city should reap the rewards of the
local motel tax, there was now an additional $200,000 plus annually
that the city could invest in tourism in Lincoln.
This spurred the purchase of the
old State Bank of Lincoln Building (aka Heartland Bank) in the 500
block of Broadway Street, the hiring of Scott McCoy to manage the
new tourism department, and an announcement that the old bank
building would be devoted to economic development and tourism.
It was later announced that the city would open a Route 66 museum in
the building, and had secured a custom designed model train display
that would take visitors from Chicago to Los Angeles on the Route 66
trail via the train.
The city also throughout the quarter addressed the allowance of
solar farms or gardens within the city limits, and set stronger
rules on fencing for said farms. Data centers were also discussed in
city council meeting.
As an election year, May saw the swearing in of election winners.
There was only one significant change to the council as a result of
the election, Dennis Clemons was sworn in as alderman of Lincoln
Ward Four after defeating Wanda Lee Rohlfs.
On the county side, the county wide broadband project came back for
discussion and actions were taken to support the project and also to
fund the Logan County Jail expansion.
Work continued on the Logan County Courthouse with monthly updates
given by restoration project leader Bill Walter.
Also on the county side, the Community Benefit Fund continued to be
a topic of discussion.
04/04/2025
Logan County Board approves employee insurance plan with increased
contribution by the county
Logan County Board discusses financing broadband internet project
Delays final vote to April 16th
As with the past two regular board meetings in March, one special
and one not, the issues being discussed by the board were those of
insurance for county employees, specifically those who are
non-union, as well as the Logan County Broadband project. The second
of the two issues discussed was the broadband project.
In the second part of the meeting, Glenn switched the focus of the
meeting to the county broadband project. He stated that the American
Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money that had been moved from the county
broadband project to the Logan County Jail expansion project had put
that project over budget. This being the case, there was a line item
in this year’s budget that was going to take $1.2 million from the
general fund and move it to the county jail expansion project. This
money could instead be marked to be moved to the broadband project.
There is also about $300,000 in interest from a CD that the county
will soon have, and that can be moved to broadband as well. In
addition to these two sources of funding, the rest would be taken
out of the Community Benefit Fund (CBF).
04/05/2025
Justin Cheger of Stone River group expresses concerns over new solar
farm/garden rules for the city of Lincoln
Monday evening, during public participation at the Lincoln City
Council meeting, Justin Cheger of Stone River Group addressed the
council regarding the recent changes to the solar farm ordinances
within city limits.
Cheger is working with two Lincoln businesses that are going to be
installing ground mounted solar panels to help offset electric costs
to their buildings. The two businesses are First National Bank of
Tremont in the 700 block of Woodlawn Road and El Mazatlan Restaurant
& Grill on the city’s west end.
Cheger’s primary concern was the 12-foot opaque fence rule that the
city has implemented and the impact it will have on the Tremont Bank
solar garden.
04/10/2025
Logan County Board Finance Committee
Runge recommends a full-board survey to help start building
guidelines for Community Benefit Fund
Andrea Runge with the Lincoln Economic Advancement and
Development (L.E.A.D.) was in attendance along with Dorsey Hill.
Hill has earned a fellowship with the Economic Recovery Corps. She
is assigned to the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council in
general and is working in Logan County specifically.
04/16/2025
Lincoln Aldermen discuss re-directing hotel motel tax to a city
tourism department
At the Tuesday evening meeting of the Lincoln City Council,
aldermen heard from Mayor Tracy Welch a proposal that would
re-direct the hotel/motel tax collected in the city of Lincoln from
the current Logan County Tourism Bureau to a newly formed City of
Lincoln Tourism Department.
04/21/2025
Animal control, broadband funding among topics discussed at April
16, 2025 meeting
Things got further complicated when Leesman, the board member
primarily working on the grant, went back and was not sure if the
county had to have the $6.8 million grant spent by the end of 2025.
Considering that it would take at least a year and a half to finish
the Broadband project, this deadline would mean that the board could
not spend all the money in time and the project would have to be
stopped before it was finished. The board went back and found the $2
million for this project through other means, and this motion was to
move these funds to a place that they could be used for Broadband.
05/06/2026
City of Lincoln begins the new fiscal year with swearing of elected
officials
Monday, May 5th the Lincoln City Council marked the beginning of
a new fiscal year at their first meeting for the month of May.
Included in the evening activities were the swearing in of newly
elected officials. This year the right-hand side of the council
chamber was up for election. Of the contested races for 2025, only
one aldermanic seat changed. In Ward 3, Dennis Clemons Sr. took the
seat previously occupied by Wanda Lee Rohlfs.
05/15/2025
Finance Committee will recommend $25,000 in support for Logan County
Tourism Bureau
Early in the evening the committee heard from Conahan and Kuhlman
about recent developments at the Logan County Tourism Bureau and
heard a request for funding for the bureau.
Conahan and Kuhlman shared that the city has said it will match
funding with the county LCTB up to $25,000 from the Lincoln
Hotel/Motel tax. The stipulation is that the city will only support
the LCTB if the county also supports it.
05/15/2025
Finance Committee learns Logan County Jail project is coming in at
more than $7,000,000
After explaining the process thoroughly to the committee Doolin
went in to the money aspect of the project.
He said that all in along with a $172,000 contingency fund, the
project was going to come to $7,384,325, approximately $1 million
more than the county had planned for. He said that it was the cost
of doing business at this point in time, and that several of the
bidders had commented that prices were going up every day.
Fortunately for the county, by law, the bidders have to guarantee
their prices for 90 days.
05/19/2025
Board struggles with Tourism funding, speaks with Kevin Knauer and
Cindy Gleason about being appointed to the board
Michael DeRoss was the first to speak on this item. DeRoss stated
he had pulled the tax records on how much money was given to the
Tourism Bureau last year. For anyone who is unaware, the Tourism
Bureau receives money from taxes collected by anyone staying in a
hotel or motel in Lincoln. This is often referred to as the
hotel/motel tax by the board. DeRoss found that the Tourism Bureau
received about $192,000 in tax revenue in 2024, in addition to
whatever money they received from grants.
DeRoss then continued, stating that, as far as he understands, if
the city of Lincoln were to pull the hotel/motel tax, the Tourism
Bureau would lose many of the state grants they also use for
funding. His perspective is that they should slow down on this issue
and seek to sign a memorandum of understanding with Lincoln that
they would not pull the hotel/motel tax.
Lance Conahan, who is also on the Tourism Board, spoke next. He
shared that the Lincoln City Council already voted to pull the
hotel/motel tax funding from the Tourism Bureau.
05/19/2025
Members discuss jail project, broadband and House Bill 2827
The final item on the agenda for Finance was an update on the
Logan County jail expansion. The bids started coming in for the
project and are higher than the board budgeted for. Previously, the
board expected the project to cost about $6.8 million. The lowest
bid so far, however, has been $7.4 million. It was also shared that
the federal government cut broadband funds to the state. Several
board members received an email from the state saying that they were
unsure of how this was going to impact the broadband grant. Several
board members stated that, if the broadband project were to die
because of this, they would have some money to put toward the
increased cost of the county jail expansion. The board stated that
they are likely going to be voting on a bid at next month’s meeting
05/21/2025
Lincoln City Council approves ordinance change, approves new solar
farm and more
The council voted to approve a $45,000 contract with Scott McCoy
of McCoyCore USA LLC for tourism consulting services which passed
unanimously.
05/27/2025
Logan County Board Appoints Kevin Knauer
On Tuesday, May 20th, the Logan County Board met for their
monthly regular meeting. This meeting was held in the first floor
courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse starting at 6:00 p.m. One
of the items on the agenda was the appointment of Kevin Knauer to
the vacant District 3 position left open after Julie Bobell
resigned. There were many things on the agenda for this meeting, and
for a rundown of those items, please read LDN’s other write up on
this meeting.
05/27/2025
Logan County Board:
May regular meeting report
Finance was next, with Chairman Schmidt leading this part. There
were five items, four of which were passed and one of which was sent
back to committee. The item sent back to committee was a motion to
support funding in the amount of $25,000 to the Logan County Tourism
Bureau.
05/31/2025
County Board and Lincoln City Council Discuss the Future of Tourism
On Wednesday, May 28th, members of the Logan County Board and the
Lincoln City Council met for a meeting to discuss funding for the
Logan County Tourism Bureau (LCTB). The meeting was held in the
Training Room of the Lincoln Police Station starting at 6:00 p.m.
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06/02/2025
Lincoln City Council Discusses Infrastructure Projects, HR
Study, and Upcoming Events; Revisits Code of Ethics
Note: The code of conduct was first introduced by Lincoln
Mayor Tracy Welch in September of 2024. It was appointed to a
committee and in October the draft ordinance was brought before
the council. Then alderman Craig Eimer objected to the entirety
of the ordinance saying that it would “weaponize the public,
city employees, and aldermen, enabling the same to physically
remove an alderman from office.”
When the item came to vote in October, four aldermen voted in
favor of the ordinance and four were opposed. Typically the
Mayor is left to cast the tie-breaking vote. However on this
particular topic, Welch said he would have to abstain from the
vote. Therefore the motion fell to the wayside for the lack of a
tie-breaker.
06/04/2025
Zoning and Economic Development Committee Discusses Home Occupations
This brought the committee to new business, which ended up being
the majority of the meeting. The first item was about the new home
occupations ordinance. At last month’s committee of the whole
meeting, having people with home occupations disclose what kinds of
items they have in their home was a bit of a contentious issue, with
some board members calling it “overreach” on their part.
06/10/2025
County Board Votes on Jail Funding and Hires a New Administrative
Assistant
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.
06/10/2025
Aldermen Review Pension Funds and Greenlight Health Insurance Switch
A proposed Code of Conduct for city officials was tabled during
the June 2 Lincoln City Council meeting, along with extensive
discussion on how to define expectations and consequences for
elected officials. The code, drafted by the city’s ethics group,
prompted concerns over vague language and enforceability.
Alderwoman Robin McClallen called for specific definitions of terms
like “meeting” and “unexcused absence,” and proposed formally
codifying the ethics committee. City Attorney John Hoblit clarified
that the code currently applies only to city council members, not
other elected officials like the clerk or treasurer.
“I’m okay with tabling it and having the committee to work on it,”
said Alderwoman Rhonda O’Donoghue. “I just don’t want there to be
dragging of the feet.”
06/12/2025
Finance Committee Decides on Community Benefit Fund Guidelines
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.
06/12/2025
Finance Committee Discusses Funding to Tourism Bureau
Conahan then made a motion for the board to fund the LCTB at
$30,000 contingent on a contract being written up by States Attorney
Brad Hauge and accepted by the LCTB for two years. The motion was
passed to the Workshop meeting unanimously.
06/13/2025
City Council Moves Forward with $30K Tourism Funding, Lincoln Way
Project, and More
The council also discussed a motion to contribute up to $30,000
to the Logan County Tourism Bureau, contingent on a matching or
greater contribution from the county. “We have traditionally done
that for many years through the Bureau,” said Welch. Neil Patel,
Treasurer for the Bureau, explained that the requested funding would
support a lean budget of $97,000. “This budget looks good,” Patel
said. “It’s helpful for the tourism too, and it is also helpful for
the Route 66 100 [year anniversary] coming up.”
06/14/2025
June Building and Grounds Committee Meeting
The first item was an update on the courthouse restoration
project given by Walter. He shared that the windows are coming along
and should be done in one to two weeks. Walter also shared that the
second floor courtroom is just about done. Judge Wright also asked
Walter that, if when they begin renovating the first floor
courtroom, they can try to set it up in such a way that when the
County Board has their meetings there, they can all sit without
having their backs to the people in attendance. Currently, several
of the board members have to sit with their back to the audience due
to the space available. Part of this request came out of the fact
that, according to Walter’s conversation with Wright, the first
floor courtroom may not be being used as an official courtroom very
often. Since the population of Logan County has been declining, they
only have two judges assigned to the courthouse, and they already
use the second and third floor courtrooms. Wright did request that
the room’s function as a courtroom not be compromised in his
request, however.
06/16/2025
County Board Discusses Funding for Logan County Tourism Bureau
Sanders then brought up what the city of Lincoln is expecting to
get from the LCTB since they are potentially agreeing to fund it in
part. Conahan explained that Lincoln will benefit if the county
benefits. He also stated that part of it is just being a good
neighbor. According to Conahan, it would be a “win-win” if a new
LCTB director and current Lincoln tourism department director Scott
McCoy were to work together.
Wessbecher then mentioned that it could get confusing for visitors
if they came to Lincoln and there were two tourism locations. He
also stated that the city was not concerned with being a good
neighbor when they pulled 100 percent of the funding from the
hotel/motel tax from the LCTB.
06/20/2025
June Regular Board Meeting
Next was the Finance committee, which had four action items.
Committee Chairman Schmidt started with the approval of the
Community Benefit Fund (CBF) guidelines. Since the Workshop meeting,
Leesman had gotten the guidelines and intake/application form to the
board. The board took a moment to review the forms. DeRoss then made
a comment, stating that he would like to see 501©(19) organizations
added to the guidelines as groups that can apply for funding from
the CBF. He further explained that these are veterans groups, and
proposed an amendment be made to add them. This was seconded by
Fitzpatrick. The board then took a vote to pass the motion as
amended. This passed with a unanimous vote.
06/19/2025
From accidental mayor to Route 66 expert, Scott McCoy brings his
vision to Lincoln Tourism Department
McCoy said that Lincoln has long been on his personal radar. He
said that over the years he has spoken to various groups across the
country about Route 66 and tourism, and he has used two communities
as shining examples of towns that have missed the boat on Route 66,
with Lincoln being one of those two. He said that it seemed like a
big opportunity missed. He noted that there was really no reason for
it to be that way. If Pontiac can draw tourists into their town,
then why shouldn’t Lincoln, who has Route 66 traveling right into
the heart of the city, be even more successful at drawing tourists?
As many know, the city of Lincoln has been collecting the
hotel/motel tax from motels located in the city limits for the last
decade or just over. The lion’s share of that money was then passed
on to the Logan County Tourism Bureau which is also located in
Lincoln. In recent months, the city aldermen voted in favor of a
proposal by Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch that the city stop the pass
through of cash and start utilizing the money for tourism
initiatives in the city.
06/20/2025
County Board Votes on Tourism Funding, Viper Mine Grant, and Black
Jack Solar
Another amendment was proposed, this time by Conahan. He stated
that he wanted to make sure that The Mill would be preserved in
LCTB’s 501©(3). This would be for the two year period that the board
is proposing to fund the LCTB. He stated that this way, the LCTB
would always have a home at The Mill. Leesman asked if the LCTB
would be able to afford The Mill, something that has come into
question at other meetings where this issue was discussed. Conahan
stated that they would be able to with the money in their savings
account. A vote was then taken on this amendment, which was passed
unanimously.
The board then took a vote on the entire motion as amended. This
motion was passed unanimously as well.
Other news
In other news related to city and county governance, candidates
running for Logan County Sheriff in the 2026 election announced
their intents as did candidates for the title of Logan County
Treasurer.
The big, big news outside of city and county governance was the
announcement that the state of Illinois was implementing a program
that would lead to the demolition and re-purposing of state owned
properties with local governments being able to utilize those
properties for economic development.
The abandoned Lincoln Developmental Center in Lincoln was included
in the multi-million dollar project.
04/21/2025
Michael Block announces Republican candidacy for Logan County
Sheriff
Michael Block, a Lieutenant with over 21 years of service at the
Logan County Sheriff’s Office, has officially announced his
republican candidacy for the position of Logan County Sheriff.
Standing before the community on the steps of the Logan County
Courthouse, Lieutenant Block expressed his commitment to continuing
his service in a leadership role and advancing the core values of
experience, integrity, and trust.
Having filled multiple roles within the Sheriff's Office, including
administration, investigations, field training, patrol and
corrections, Lt. Block brings a wealth of experience in every aspect
of law enforcement, shaping his career with a deep understanding of
the challenges facing Logan County.
05/20/2025
Rendi Ray announces candidacy for Logan County Treasurer
My Name is Rendi Ray, and I am excited to officially announce my
candidacy for Logan County Treasurer.
As a long-time resident of Logan County, I care deeply about our
community and our future. With a strong background in finance and
business management, I bring the skills, dedication, and integrity
needed to manage our county’s finances with transparency,
accountability, and efficiency.
06/05/2025
State of Illinois Highlights Historic $500 Million Investment in
Site Readiness Following Balanced Budget Passage
Following the passage of Governor JB Pritzker’s seventh
consecutive balanced budget, the State of Illinois today highlighted
a historic $500 million investment in site readiness—marking a bold
step forward in transforming unused state properties into hubs of
economic opportunity. This investment—which represents the largest
site readiness investment in state history—will prepare sites across
the state to attract new industries, create jobs, and bring new life
to communities that have long been impacted by shuttered or unused
facilities.
06/06/2025
State Investment Could Help Advance Long-Overdue Redevelopment of
LDC
State Senator Sally Turner (R-Beason) is welcoming news that the
Lincoln Developmental Center (LDC) has been identified as one of
five high-priority properties eligible for redevelopment under a new
$500 million state initiative, marking what could be the most
significant step forward in addressing the long-abandoned site in
decades.
06/15/2025
Joshua Pharis announces candidacy for office of Logan County Sheriff
Saturday morning, June 14, 2025, a large crowd of supporters
gathered on the lawn of the Mt Pulaski Courthouse to hear Joshua
Pharis formally announce his run for the office of Logan County
Sheriff.
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