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Logan County Board
January Special Building and Grounds Meeting
[January 15, 2026]
On Wednesday, January 14th, the
Building and Grounds Committee of the larger Logan County Board met
for a special meeting. Having already had their regular meeting
earlier in the month, this was the second time this committee met in
January. The reason for meeting was to listen to presentations from
companies and potentially choose a new phone provider for the
county, which is currently provided by Frontier.
Of the five member committee, three members were present. These
members included Chairman Lance Conahan, Dale Nelson, and Gil
Turner. Absent members were Vice Chairman Hannah Fitzpatrick and Jim
Wessbecher. Also in attendance were Administrative Assistant Maddie
Hinton, as well as fellow board members Kathy Schmidt and Kevin
Knauer. This meeting was held in the second-floor courtroom of the
Logan County Courthouse starting at 5:30 p.m.
John Minnich and Steve Agee of Gibson Teldata were present for the
first of the two presentations. Minnich is the Sales Engineer and
Agee is the Sales Executive with Gibson. Agee started the
presentation by sharing that they wanted the county to know what
their options are, and that Gibson would like to be a partner with
the county in getting the phone service needs met.
Minnich then shared a bit about the company, stating that Gibson is
a communications company with the goal of driving down costs for
their customers and increasing productivity. They have been open
since 1980 with their headquarters out of Indianapolis, Indiana.
They currently have about two thousand customers.
Next, Minnich shared that Gibson assigns a project coordinator on
every project they do, and that they try to create a phone system to
meet the needs of each of their customers. This means that if one
county building wants their phones set up differently than the other
county buildings, their company is able to do this.
According to Minnich’s
presentation, Logan County currently has two phone systems, one in
the courthouse and another in the Highway Department building. Both
systems are outdated and are no longer produced. Minnich stated that
he would suggest the county start by getting rid of Frontier as they
are “gouging” the county, stating that their monthly price is much
higher than what Gibson can offer.
Minnich then presented the committee members with three options. In
short, one option would be a single system at the courthouse, the
second would be two systems, like they have now, and the third would
be cloud service phones.
The first option was the cheapest but had some drawbacks. If the
system went down, the county would be without a phone system. The
second option was a bit more expensive, but if one of the systems
went down, the other would take over. This would require the county
to have two internet providers, one at the courthouse and one at the
Highway Department. The last option was unique, in that so long as
there is an internet connection, the phones would work. The way it
was explained, Minnich said the Gibson Cumulus Enterprise would
allow employees to take their phones home, plug them in, and could
make phone calls from their home. This option could be more
expensive for larger customers, as Gibson charges per line, but
could be more cost-effective for customers with less overall phones.
Schmidt asked Minnich what his recommendation would be, and he
stated that the third option might be the best for Logan County.
The price would also be much less than the county’s current monthly
bill with Frontier. Minnich and Agee estimated the cost to be about
$2,760 per month, $3,040 dollars less per month than their current.
It was also stated that the reliability of the service is 99.999%,
there would be no additional cost for fixes where Gibson employees
would only need to “remote in,” and that there would be a warranty
program if the county rented phones through Gibson, meaning they
would be replaced if they malfunctioned at no extra cost. There
would be a one-time installation fee of $5,699.80.
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Minnich also told
the committee that their phones are about twelve years old,
something that came as a shock, considering the county just
bought these phones from a representative at Frontier who
informed them that they were new. Minnich stated that, while the
models are older, they are still considered to be current
models.
The second presentation was from Heart IT, the county’s current
IT company. Sheila Feipel and Jeremiah were the two
representatives present. She stated that Heart has been a Mitel
dealer since it started, which is what the county currently uses
for its phone systems through Frontier. Feipel got straight to
the point, suggesting that the county get rid of Frontier’s
service and keep their current system. She stated that Heart
would switch out some of their equipment, but the install fee
would only be $150.
She also mentioned that, since Heart is the county’s current IT
company and they have been doing work around the county, that
the new phones they purchased were actually refurbished. This
was something the board was very concerned about, with Conahan
stating that the representative from Frontier told him they were
new devices. Nelson stated that he found this fact “disturbing.”
When Nelson asked, Jeremiah shared that new phones would
probably cost somewhere between $500 and $600 apiece. He
informed the committee that Frontier no longer supports Mitel,
but that Heart does. He stated that the county would not have to
purchase new phones from Heart, and that they could work with
the recently purchased phones from Frontier.
Feipel stated that they could eventually look into doing cloud
phones, but that this is not something she recommends they do
now. She and Jeremiah stated that their internet would probably
not be good enough to support it currently. Conahan asked what
this would cost, and Jeremiah estimated that it would likely
cost around $10 per line but stated that number was not solid.
Conahan asked if the county were to select Heart for their
phones but part ways with their IT services, if there would be
any conflict to keeping them on for only the phone service.
Feipel stated that this would not be a problem.
This concluded Heart’s presentation, which was immediately
followed by a motion. Nelson made a motion to approve Gibson and
their cloud based system they proposed. This motion was seconded
by Turner. Before voting, they brought Minnich and Agee back in
to ask about the length of the contract. Agee stated that the
contract would be for three years, but that the county could get
a larger discount if they signed up for a longer contract. A
vote was taken, and it was unanimously decided among the three
members to move this item on to the Workshop meeting.
Before adjournment, Nelson made a motion to suspend all Frontier
employees or representatives from working with any government
entity in the county until further notice. He stated that he did
not feel that someone or their company who would sell
refurbished phones as new should be doing work in the county,
stating that he does not trust them. Conahan stated that the
representative was working on a wiring project in the courthouse
currently, and that would need to come to a halt. Nelson stood
by his motion. It was seconded by Turner, and then all three
members again voted to move it on to tomorrow night’s Workshop
meeting.
[Matt Boutcher]
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