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Logan County Board Special Regular Meeting
Board hears plans for Logan County Jail Expansion
Decides on a firm to assist with Inflation
Reduction Act refund
[March 02, 2025]
On Thursday, February 27th, the Logan County Board
met for a special regular meeting. This meeting was held in the
first floor courtroom in the Logan County Courthouse starting at
6:00 p.m. The board members present included Chairman JR Glenn, Vice
Chairman Julie Bobell, Jim Wessbecher, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Joseph
Kuhlman, Bob Sanders, Gil Turner, Michael DeRoss, Kathy Schmidt, and
Lance Conahan. Members Dale Nelson and Keenan Leesman were not in
attendance. The meeting was started with a prayer by Turner,
followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. This was followed by a time
for public comments, of which there were none.
There were two reasons the board called for this special meeting.
The first was to give an update on the jail expansion. Two
representatives from the companies working on the plans for the
expansion, O’Shea Builders and Dewberry, were present. Brooke Martin
is the Project Manager and Subject Matter Expert from Dewberry, and
Greg Doolin is the Construction Manager and Director of
Preconstruction from O’Shea.
Martin and Doolin gave a presentation together,
talking about the needed improvements, the expected cost, and many
other updates. They started with a brief overview of the project,
introducing themselves and their companies. They then talked about
how the expansion was needed due to the passage of the Illinois
SAFE-T Act. This requires jails, among other things, to have mental
health facilities within their facilities.
Sheriff Mark Landers was also present to help provide some clarity
to the board. He informed the board that, while they do have a $3
million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant and $1.5 million from
the capital improvement grant, they were still going to come up
about $1.7-$2.3 million short. The total cost of the project, as it
currently stands, is about $6.8 million.
Martin and Doolin also explained their process, explaining that they
are in the final stage of that process: design approval. They
explained that a soil sample from below the jail revealed that
thirty foot grout columns are going to be needed below the new
structure. Seeing as what the soil is composed of, it is going to
continue to compress, causing the new structure to sink over years.
This is something that brought the cost of the project up. Without
these columns, the addition will begin to pull away from the old
structure over time.
It was also revealed that the current plans were heavily modified
from the original plans. The original plans had the jail expansion
costing an estimated $8.2 million. An 8-man dorm was removed from
the original plans. This dorm would have been to hold sentenced
inmates. Sheriff Landers explained that he has to keep certain
inmates, such as inmates of certain genders, away from each other by
law. This dorm would have been to help hold certain prisoners while
others were moved or transferred out.
The overall size of the addition was also reduced. Martin and Doolin
showed two slides, one of the original plans and one of the modified
plans. It was clear to see that the modified plans were the smaller
of the two. This reduction in size amounted to 1,400 square feet
less. The sally port, which is used to transfer prisoners into and
out of the facility, was also made smaller. The parking lot was also
going to be redone, but that was taken out of the current plans too.
Beside these modifications, Landers shared, there was absolutely
nothing else that could be done to reduce the cost.
As for what the expansion will consist of, it is
going to have two mental health rooms for people who are
experiencing mental health crises. Landers shared that addiction and
mental health issues are the most common issues that are being
handled at the jail. They also only get two hours a week where a
mental health professional comes into the facility. This is in part
due to how expensive these services are. These rooms are also
“negative pressure rooms,” which can be used to hold people with
contagious diseases with less chance of the contagion spreading. In
addition to these two rooms, the expansion will also provide the
jail with more holding cells.
Additionally, Landers shared that the Department of Corrections
(DOC), who have approved the modified plans, called this expansion
innovative. “Nobody’s done this. This is innovative and DOC said so.
They are impressed with what we are looking to do to marry up with
the Safety Act.”
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Martin went on to explain that
the current size of the jail gives Landers and his team 59 beds.
That number will reduce to 50 after specialty populations are
considered, such as mental health and gender, that will need to
be housed in separate areas. There are also eighteen doors to
cells that need to be replaced. If they are not replaced, this
reduces the number of usable beds even further to 25.
The total probable cost of the addition was given,
standing at $6,799,353. Two other costs were given, these not being
added into that about $6.8 million cost. The first was the cost of
fixing the parking lot, which would come in at an additional
$242,106. The other was the cost of replacing the eighteen cell
doors that need to be replaced. The cost for this could range from
$306,232-$540,000. This means that without the other two items, the
cost of the project would still be about $600,000 over the current
funding the project has. Martin and Doolin also urged the board to
not wait too long before moving forward with the project, as the
upcoming tariffs are only going to make building materials more
expensive.
The board then had a brief discussion over the project, with Sanders
calling replacing the cell doors a “no-brainer.” Bobell voiced some
concern with approving the project before knowing where the extra
$600,000 or more is going to come from. DeRoss volunteered to go
hunting for more grants the county could apply for. All of the board
members decided to send this item to the Finance committee for the
month of March.
Inflation Reduction Act
The second reason the board called this special meeting was to
choose a company to hire to help the county fill out the paperwork
for the tax refund through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). At
February’s regular board meeting, the board voted to hire Andy
Fitzpatrick of J. M. Abbott & Associates, with Hannah Fitzpatrick
abstaining from the vote. Andy Fitzpatrick is going to act as the
intermediary between the board and whatever larger company they hire
to help them fill out the IRA application.
The county is set to receive somewhere between $2 and $2.2 million
from the IRA. If the board can prove that they used at least 40
percent domestic steel when completing the geothermal project at the
courthouse, they can get an additional 10 percent back. One issue
that Bill Walter, one of the people who have been working on this
IRA application process, brought up is that many companies are
reluctant to state where their materials are sourced from.
Kyle and David were the names of the two people being considered to
help in the application process. Kyle, who is with Grant Thornton,
was going to charge $20,000 for the application. He is going to
charge an additional $3,500 to investigate the percentage of
domestic steel that was used if the board wants him to. If it turns
out that the county can get that additional 10 percent, he would
like an extra $15,000-$20,000 for filling out the additional
paperwork.
As for David, he is only charging $10,000 for the entire process.
Walter said, however, that he does not seem as knowledgeable or
confident as Kyle about getting the additional 10 percent. David
also does not work with a larger firm, unlike Kyle.
The board discussed their two options, with Conahan stating that he
is more comfortable with Kyle. “This isn’t really something we can
afford to lose,” Conahan said. DeRoss suggested the possibility of
splitting the work, having David do the primary application and Kyle
doing the additional 10 percent work. Walter stated that this would
not be a possibility. Glenn stated that “it is sometimes worth
paying for the name on the letterhead… We can’t miss here.”
A motion was made to hire Kyle Swenson of Grant Thornton to help the
board apply for the IRA tax rebate, with the additional $3,500 to
investigate potentially getting the additional 10 percent. The board
voted unanimously to approve this motion, with the exception of
Fitzpatrick who once again abstained.
[Matt Boutcher]
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