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Logan County Board will
investigate seeking an extension on Broadband Grant
[March 27, 2025]
On Tuesday, March 25th, the Logan County Board met
in the third floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. They
met to discuss the issues of insurance for county employees and
funding for the broadband project.
After the board finished their discussion on insurance, they
immediately jumped into their discussion over broadband. Chairman JR
Glenn started by giving his support for the project. He stated that
he sees broadband as a necessity. He stated that he believes
investing in Logan County’s infrastructure is the only way to bring
in new people and businesses.
At the Finance meeting the night prior, it was
stated that there is an expected $900,000 in permit fees that will
be coming from wind farms in the coming year. Michael DeRoss
challenged this, saying that he was only aware of $574,200 from the
Pike Creek wind project. Lance Conahan stated that he was not sure
where the $900,000 number came from, but he would look into it.
Glenn then suggested taking the money from the Community Benefit
Fund (CBF) and using that to pay for a portion of the $2 million
that would be needed to start the broadband project. Glenn stated
that he would not be opposed to draining the CBF for this project.
Also, since the county would be able to generate income from
companies using the broadband network, it could refund the CBF if
that is what the county wanted to use that revenue stream for.
Conahan also suggested moving the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
money that was moved to the jail expansion back to broadband. He
then suggested taking out a bond for the jail expansion. They would
then use the $100,000 a year that the new wind farm project is
supposed to generate on paying back that bond. The main issue with
this suggestion was that the board is going to have to take a vote
on the jail expansion in thirty days. When that vote is taken, the
board needs to have a source of funding for the project figured out.
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Jim Wessbecher then suggested
taking $400,000 of the ARPA money that was moved to the jail and
moving it back to broadband. Wessbecher’s reasoning was that
Sheriff Mark Landers stated that they needed an extra $1.6
million for the project, but the board voted to give them all $2
million of the ARPA money that was previously set to be used on
broadband. Glenn approved of this idea, stating that the county
needs to get better at giving people only the amounts they
absolutely need, and not more.
DeRoss asked about how much money the board has in
reserve and stated that looking into that may be another source of
money that could be put toward this project.
Keenan Leesman then shared that he was reviewing the
grant and trying to figure a few things out. He wanted to figure out
if the county was going to have to contribute a specific amount, and
if that amount would be gradual and over time or all at once at the
end. He also wanted to review when the county would be required to
have that money spent, as if they start the broadband project too
late, they would lose out on the money before they were able to
spend it all.
Kati Newman, the Logan County Administrative Assistant, stated that
she works with grants a lot for the county. She informed the board
that they are allowed to ask for an extension to the grant, but only
a single time. The board was not aware of this, but stated this
could be good so they have more time to figure out how they are
going to fund this project.
Glenn then tasked Leesman with seeing about getting an extension to
the state grant for broadband. The meeting was adjourned shortly
after.
[Matt Boutcher]
05/18/2025 - Funding for Logan County Jail project takes a sharp
right turn
https://archives.lincolndailynews.com
/2025/Mar/18/NEWS/today_COUNTY.shtml
05/20/2025 - County Board Disagrees on ARPA Funding - Final vote
goes to the Jail Expansion Project
https://archives.lincolndailynews.com
/2025/Mar/20/NEWS/today_COUNTY.shtml
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