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Logan County Board
February Building and Grounds Committee Meeting
[February 10, 2026]
On Monday, February 9th, the
Building and Grounds Committee of the larger Logan County Board held
for their monthly meeting in the newly renovated first floor
courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. This room is planned to be
a joint courtroom/County Board meeting room.
Four of the five members of the committee were in attendance.
Present were Chairman Lance Conahan, Vice Chairman Hannah
Fitzpatrick, Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher. Dale Nelson was absent.
Also in attendance were State’s Attorney Brad Hauge, Logan County
Treasurer Penny Thomas, Bill Walter, Madelyn Hinton, and fellow
Board member Kevin Knauer.
After the previous month’s meeting minutes had been approved,
Conahan immediately moved the committee on to old business. The
first of the two items was regarding a resolution for the community
to be able to request the lights be changed on the courthouse for
different events, such as school colors for sports team victories.
Conahan shared that Nelson and Fitzpatrick had been working on it,
but Fitzpatrick shared that there were no updates at this time.
The second old business item was about a server replacement at the
courthouse that the county was going to be purchasing through Heart
IT. Last month, there were some questions regarding the cost of the
replacement. Conahan shared that those concerns had since been
worked out.
The new business had quite a few more items than the old business,
with there being eleven. Walter started by giving his update on the
courthouse restoration. He stated that the installation of the
electric LED lights below the new stained glass that had recently
been replaced should begin this week. He shared that the company
Restoric is underway crafting the bell crib that is going to hold
the bell at the top of the courthouse.
Next, Walter shared that there should be a proposal coming soon for
some new furniture for the first-floor courtroom. All the seats and
tables that were in the room for the meeting were from before the
update. He also shared that the security area and the women’s
restroom were complete, with the lactating room all but done too. He
is also currently conversing with contractors for floor replacement,
outside concrete replacement, the facade, and the clocks. He is
working to make sure that the concrete replacement around the
perimeter is historically correct.
Walter then shared that TK Elevator is wanting to start their
replacement of the exterior elevator around April 1st. Conahan
shared that this was moved from the previously discussed time of
mid-March due to the elections that would be held at the courthouse.
He shared that the $1,000 per day fine was agreed to with TK
Elevator for each day the company takes in excess of 22 days to
complete. The county decided to do this because they would have to
pay money for something like a lift to remain Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant and want to hold TK to their
original time frame.
The next item discussed was the scaffolding invoice update with
American Scaffolding. At the last meeting, it was shared that, after
many months and much back-and-forth, the county seemed to have come
to an agreement with the company on how much the county owed
American Scaffolding for the scaffolding used in the exterior
building work last year. Conahan suggested that the committee go
into executive session to discuss the item. Fitzpatrick stated the
reason for the executive session was “pending litigation.” The
committee then unanimously voted to go into executive session.
Once the executive session was over, Conahan shared that he was
going to move some things around, moving to a different item on the
list. The next three items were invoices from the company Widmer
Interiors to approve furniture in the Treasurer’s Office, the County
Clerk and Recorder’s Office, and the First Floor Courtroom.
For the Treasurer’s Office, the
amount was $15,579.45 and would include a sliding door with a lock
that would make her area more secure when handling and locking up
money. Conahan shared that this amount would be coming out of the
courthouse restoration fund as Thomas does not have enough money in
her budget to cover the cost. Wessbecher took some issue with this,
stating that they do not know how much money is in the restoration
fund, as well as how Hauge took money out of his own budget to pay
for some things. He clarified, stating that he did not think that
the item should not be done, but that there are a lot of projects
going on at the courthouse at the moment, which means a lot of money
is moving and sometimes surprises come up.
Conahan responded that they did
know how much was in the fund. He shared that, when they were
working on the budget at the end of last year, they accounted for
the cost of all the projects that were currently going on or are
going to be happening and discovered that the account would have
around $900,000 left. This, he stated, meant that the account had
plenty to cover this cost. A motion was made to approve this
proposal, and it passed 3-1, with Wessbecher being the only no-vote.
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Next was the
proposal for the County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, which was
for a counter. The amount of that proposal was $7,371.96. A vote
was taken and it passed with the same margin as the previous
vote, with Wessbecher voting no after stating that he “will be
consistent.” The final proposal for the first-floor courtroom
furniture was in the amount of $29,571.59, and Conahan stated
that this would go before the full vote for approval because of
the larger amount. This passed with the same margin as the
previous two.
After this was a proposal for a company called Revize to update
the Logan County website. Conahan stated that they had learned
of a law that would require all government websites to be ADA
compliant by 2027. Revize sent Logan County’s website through a
program to flag things, and they had found dozens of issues. The
cost would be $12,100, and Revize would work with the department
heads to make sure that the page for their departments was laid
out the way they would want it. Conahan also stated that this
same company had redone the county websites for both DeWitt and
Livingston counties. The committee voted unanimously to approve
the proposal.
After this, the committee briefly discussed a proposal for some
new playground equipment for Latham Park. Last month, Pastor Ron
Otto of Lincoln Christian Church (LCC) came with a donation of
$15,000 on behalf of his church and requested that the county
use that money for some new playground equipment for Latham
Park, which is right across the street from their building. The
committee looked at some of the proposed playground equipment.
Wessbecher stated that there were no costs for shipping or
installation accounted for in the numbers. Conahan also shared
that Nelson wanted the committee to match the amount. Since
Nelson was not present, the committee decided to wait until next
month’s meeting when Nelson returned before moving forward.
After, the next item was about
“Central IL Santa” at Scully Park for 2026. The committee talked
about dates and times that they would want to hire the man who did
this event last year to come and play Santa again. Hinton stated
that she would reach out to him the next day.
Next was a concern that Nelson had about the ice rink at Scully Park
losing money. Since Nelson was not present, the committee moved the
item to old business for next month.
The next item discussed was use of the first floor courtroom for all
County Board meetings moving forward. One upside, Conahan shared,
was the fact that they could have security, but the downside would
be that it would not be free to the county. Turner stated that he
agreed it was a downside, but that the upsides, such as having a
“friendlier” place for the community to come to their meetings,
outweighed the downsides. Conahan also stated that the county is
looking into getting a system put in place to be able to live stream
their meetings in the future.
Conahan then jumped down to a use of grounds request by Zonta
International. They are wanting to place pinwheels in the lawn of
the courthouse to bring attention to their cause of trying to end
violence against women. They also requested that the county change
the courthouse lights to orange during that time (April 19th to the
25th), but the committee decided not to do this due to the fact that
they were still working on a new resolution for light requests to be
made. The committee voted to approve the use of grounds request
without the lights.
The final item the committee discussed was “Frontier/CCS
Solutions/County Phones discussion.” Conahan once more suggested the
committee go into executive session to discuss this item, citing the
reason as “probable, imminent, or pending litigation.” The committee
once more voted in favor of the executive session. Before the
session started, Conahan shared that the committee would have no
more official business after the session.
[Matt Boutcher]
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