September Logan County Board briefs: Fifth Street cable moves in preparation for road renovation

 

[October 14, 2021] 

At the Regular Logan County Board session on Tuesday, September 21, the board voted on several action items.

Board members present were Chairman Emily Davenport, Vice Chairman Scott Schaffenacker, David Blankenship, Janet Estill, Bob Farmer, Dale Nelson, David Hepler, Steve Jenness, Keenan Leesman, Bob Sanders and Annette Welch. Jim Wessbecher was absent.

At the September Workshop, Logan County Highway Engineer Bret Aukamp said he had just received the agreement from Frontier for the relocation. They need to start relocates of phone cable along Fifth Street Road and eventually open that corridor to rebuild the roadway.

Frontier is one of several utilities Aukamp is dealing with on Fifth Street Road.

Before voting on the contract to Goodman Excavating for $14,681.50 to install two entrance culverts along Primm Road near Salt Creek, there was some discussion.

Because Nelson feels the county contracts too much work out, he planned to vote no. Nelson said he asked at the Road and Bridge Committee meeting why county employees could not do it themselves. The answer Aukamp gave Nelson is he did not feel it was safe for the county to do because of overhead power lines.

The $14,681.50 is for Goodman Excavating to dig up an area Nelson said is five foot deep and twenty feet long and put the culverts in. The county would backfill the area. Nelson said the work would likely take less than a day. He feels this work is something the county workers could do themselves and save the county money.

When contract services are brought up in committees, Nelson feels like board member should find out whether departments have looked at all avenues. He wants the departments to consider whether they could do the work themselves. Nelson said a backhoe could be rented for less than $5,000 from one rental company.
 

The motion for the contract for culvert work failed with 6 noes and 5 yeses.

Blankenship, Estill, Farmer, Hepler, Leesman and Nelson voted no.

Davenport, Jenness, Schaffenacker, Sanders and Welch voted yes.

Animal Control Committee

The board approved Animal Control Chairman Scott Schaffenacker’s motion to approve insulating the ductwork, replace the lighting, and replacing the ceiling tile, not to exceed the amount of $44,000 from the Building Repair and Maintenance line item.

Road and Bridge Committee

The board approved three motions from the Road and Bridge Committee including:

A resolution to appropriate $20,000 from the County Bridge Fund to assist West Lincoln Township with a riprap project on the 700th Avenue bridge over Sugar Creek.
 

A bid to Central Illinois Ag for the purchase of a new mowing tractor. The low bid was $57,500.

An agreement with Frontier for a utility relocation on Fifth Street Road. The county’s share would be $29,082.41, payable from the County Motor Fuel Tax Fund.

Update on Supervisor of Assessments

New Logan County Supervisor of Assessments Jennifer Bryant officially took office on Monday, September 20. Bryant was appointed at a special meeting on August 26. Before she could start the job in Logan County, Bryant had to wrap up a role as Supervisor of Assessments in Piatt County.

Bryant comes to this job with several years of experience working in an assessor’s office. She started working in the Mclean County Supervisor of Assessments Office as a Deputy Clerk in 2009. Bryant soon began taking classes to become a Certified Assessor and continued taking them for several years.

In 2018 Bryant decided to take the test to become eligible to be a Supervisor of Assessments and in the summer of 2018, took the job as Supervisor of Assessments of Piatt County. Bryant said, “I worked there for just over 3 years. When the position for Logan County became available, I decided to apply for the position here.”

The next regular Logan County Board meeting will be held Tuesday, October 19 at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the Orr Building at 628 Broadway Street.

[Angela Reiners]