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June Building and Grounds
Committee Meeting
[June 14, 2025]
On Monday, June 9th, the
Building and Grounds committee of the larger Logan County Board met
for their monthly meeting. This meeting was held in the Blue Room of
the Logan County Safety Complex starting at 5:30 p.m. All committee
members were in attendance. This included new committee Chairman
Lance Conahan, new Vice Chairman Hannah Fitzpatrick, Dale Nelson,
Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher. Also in attendance were Cindy
Gleason, Chris Wilson, Bill Walter, new Administrative Assistant
Maddie Hinton, and board member Kevin Knauer.
The meeting started with one brief piece of old business. This was
the request to purchase a new floor scrubber machine for the Logan
County Courthouse. The cost of the machine would be $7,300. This
item has been on the agenda for several months, but the board has
not been sure that it is needed at the current time with all of the
renovations still going on in the courthouse. They decided to take
this item off the agenda.
This then took the committee to new business, of which there were
quite a few items. The first item was an update on the courthouse
restoration project given by Walter. He shared that the windows are
coming along and should be done in one to two weeks. Walter also
shared that the second floor courtroom is just about done. Judge
Wright also asked Walter that, if when they begin renovating the
first floor courtroom, they can try to set it up in such a way that
when the County Board has their meetings there, they can all sit
without having their backs to the people in attendance. Currently,
several of the board members have to sit with their back to the
audience due to the space available. Part of this request came out
of the fact that, according to Walter’s conversation with Wright,
the first floor courtroom may not be being used as an official
courtroom very often. Since the population of Logan County has been
declining, they only have two judges assigned to the courthouse, and
they already use the second and third floor courtrooms. Wright did
request that the room’s function as a courtroom not be compromised
in his request, however.
Walter continued, saying the
candidates running for Sheriff have all indicated a desire for a
holding cell in the courthouse. It was discussed to put this holding
cell in the back of the third floor courtroom. It was also discussed
to place a private space in that area so attorneys and their clients
can meet and talk.
The last item Walter addressed was some trouble getting invoices for
payments that have been made to American Scaffolding. The board
received a bill from American Scaffolding, but Walter wanted to
cross reference this bill with what the county has already paid to
make sure they did not accidentally double pay for something. The
Treasurer’s office was unable to get Walter all of the invoices
before this meeting. Conahan shared that he had spoken to Treasurer
Penny Thomas last week and she believed everything was in order with
what had been paid versus what still needed to be paid.
Conahan then led the committee to the next agenda item, which was
the potential revision of the application people use for use of
grounds requests. Avid readers of LDN’s covering of Building and
Grounds meetings will remember that, last month, Logan County Pride,
Juneteenth, and the Lincoln Area Music Society all almost had their
requests denied based on the fact that they did not have proof of
liability insurance submitted. All three of them ended up getting
insurance, but this was not until after the May Building and Grounds
meeting.
The organizer of Logan County Pride reached out to Conahan and
informed him that it can be difficult for event organizers to get
insurance thirty days or farther in advance to the day of their
event, as the current use of grounds application requires. This
makes it difficult for the committee, as the dates the event
organizers are able to get insurance does not always line up with
committee or board meetings. Conahan asked if the chairman of the
committee would be able to approve the application on their own once
they had received proof of insurance.
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Wessbecher shared that, in the
past, they had passed the event requests anyway and were pretty
flexible with when the organizers had to submit their proof of
insurance. Conahan then brought up the idea of not allowing people
to use the courthouse lawn at all based on some discussion that was
had in the Regular meeting last month. Wessbecher pushed back on
this idea, stating that things like flags would not be allowed
either. He stated that they did not want any “dog and pony shows”
being held on the lawn, but smaller items are okay. Conahan then
revised his suggestion, stating that maybe American flags can be the
only exception. This led Fitzpatrick to chime in and remind Conahan
of the signs that are currently there, such as the 3rd Fridays sign.
Conahan stated that he is okay with removing the signs. Fitzpatrick
countered with the Christmas trees on the Square that are put up
each year, saying that they would not be allowed either. Turner
stated that he thought changing this would be more trouble than it
was worth.
The committee then moved on to the next item, that being the
consideration for a backup internet provider at the courthouse for
when the internet goes out from the current provider, Comcast.
Nelson stated the issue he sees is that Comcast is unable to give
the courthouse an estimate on when services will be restored when
they go out. This item was discussed a bit more briefly, but then
the committee moved on.
The next item was getting a dumpster to clean out the John D. Logan
building. According to Conahan, the basement and utility closet need
to be cleaned out. Wilson volunteered to help clean out the building
and Conahan stated he would contact GFL to get a dumpster.
The final item on the agenda for new business was regarding
repairing the courthouse lawn perimeter wall. According to Walter,
replacing the stone pillars at the entrances will cost between
$325-$415 each, while repairing them will cost $175-$215 each.
Walter also said he is going to put together a total list of things
needed and the cost for each. He will bring this to July’s committee
meeting so the committee can pick and choose what they want done.
Walter then said that, when the wall is eventually replaced, they
are talking about having it match the courthouse itself and possibly
adding lights. Turner then asked about the timeline for replacing
the wall. Walter informed him that this would be about two years or
so away.
Nelson then brought up the idea of building a wheelchair ramp. He
stated that the cost for doing this would be between $60,000 and
$100,000. To get the outside elevator fully functioning again would
cost somewhere in the ballpark of $180,000. Conahan asked about the
cost of just replacing the elevator, to which Fitapatrick stated it
would cost much more.
This then led the committee to Wilson’s Facility Manager Report. He
stated that he did not have anything in front of him but was willing
to answer any committee questions. Fitzpatrick asked about the
graffiti that was put on the playground equipment at Scully Park.
Wilson stated that he got it off, but that the plastic had become a
bit discolored as a result. Conahan asked if it was caught on
camera. Wilson stated he had not yet gotten to go through the
footage, as that is a very time consuming process considering they
are not exactly sure when it occurred.
Conahan then moved on to public
comments. While there were no public comments, Nelson did ask Walter
about the timeline for when the stained glass is going to be
replaced. Walter said it will be whenever they get the greenlight to
do so.
The committee ended by talking about some of the bills they were set
to approve. There were some concerns regarding amounts on a few of
the bills. The committee decided to look into the amounts and verify
they are accurate before approving them. Conahan then called for a
motion to adjourn.
[Matt Boutcher] |
