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Members discuss jail project,
broadband and House Bill 2827
[May 19, 2025]
On Thursday, May 15th, the
Logan County Board met for their monthly Workshop meeting. This
meeting was held on the first floor courtroom of the Logan County
Courthouse starting at 6:00 pm. All current members of the board
were present, with the exception of Bob Sanders. Members present
included Chairman JR Glenn, Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan,
Michael DeRoss, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Joseph Kuhlman, Keenan Leesman,
Kathy Schmidt, Gil Turner and Jim Wessbecher.
After the Pledge of Allegiance and the approval of the previous
month’s minutes, Nelson, who was running the meeting, opened the
floor for public comments. Almost all of the comments were from
Logan County residents looking to oppose House Bill 2827. This bill
would create something called the Homeschool Act. This act would
require the Illinois State Board of Education to oversee the content
taught by homeschooled students.
Among the several individuals who spoke out against HB2827 was
Michelle Fuller. She brought forward a draft resolution that she was
asking the board to pass. This resolution would state that Logan
County is officially against the passing of HB2827. Fuller also
stated that several other Illinois counties have passed similar
resolutions. Fuller continued, asking the board to refuse to enforce
the law if it were passed, making Logan County a “sanctuary county.”
Several other individuals got up to speak out against HB2827. Among
the primary issues that were addressed were the speed at which
curriculum would need to be taught, the subjects that would be
required versus not allowed, and the state overreaching into the
lives of families that live in it.
Glenn asked about the number of
families in Logan County that choose homeschooling and was informed
that the Logan County Homeschoolers Facebook page has “over 100
members.” LDN was able to confirm that this page has exactly 106
members at the time of writing. Logan County Circuit Clerk Kelly
Elias also spoke out against the bill, asking the board to oppose
the bill.
Nelson then moved on, sharing that there were some concerns with
Theresa Moore and Kate Wright clerking the meetings since former
Administrative Assistant Katie Newman resigned. In their stead,
DeRoss stepped up and took over the clerking of the meeting.
The committee chairs then led the board to line items for each of
their committees, starting with Building and Grounds. The first item
was something they have been working on for several months. There
was a request for the use of the Square for Logan County Pridefest
in the month of June. Due to a new policy adopted by the county,
anyone looking to host a large event needs to provide proof of
liability insurance. The organizers of Logan County Pridefest did
not do this when they first applied for the use of grounds request.
For months, the Building and Grounds committee has been trying to
get a hold of the organizers for proof of this insurance. As of the
Workshop meeting, they still did not have this. They decided to pass
the motion to approve the event on to the Regular meeting next week
Tuesday, but with the contingency that the proof of insurance will
be provided before then. It was stated that if the proper paperwork
is not provided by the time of the meeting, the use of grounds
request will be denied.
The other two items on the agenda from the Building and Grounds
committee were a use of grounds request for the use of Latham Park
for a summer band for several dates throughout June, as well as a
use of grounds request for Latham Park for a Juneteenth Festival on
June 19th. Both of these were moved on to the regular meeting
without discussion.
The next committee was Executive and Personnel. There were six items
on the agenda from this committee. Five of the six were passed
without discussion. These were two raffles, one for the Heritage in
Flight Museum and one for the Central Illinois Veterans Commission,
as well as three re-appointments of people to the Logan County Board
of Review. The three people re-appointed are Warren Grover, Jane
Ryan, and Crystal Smith.
The final item on their agenda was the resolution to oppose HB2827.
The board decided to have State’s Attorney Brad Hauge review it. So
long as it got his approval before Tuesday, they said they would
vote on passing it at their regular meeting next Tuesday.
The next committee was the Finance committee with eight items on the
agenda. The first item discussed was a proposal to partner with
Watts for the County departments copying needs. Schmidt stated that
many of the office holders shared interest in using Watts. Elias
stated that she does not use Watts and would not use them. The board
decided to move this on to their regular meeting for a vote.
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The next item was a brief
one, that being the cancelling of a board secretary credit card.
It was shared that Logan County Treasurer Penny Thomas needs the
board minutes to cancel that card. After this, Schmidt stated
that the Logan County Cyber Liability Renewal was not ready to
be voted on, and so that issue was sent back to committee. Next
was a $1,000 donation to Nashville Nights, one of Lincoln’s
Third Fridays this year. This was moved on to the regular
meeting for a vote.
Next was a lengthy discussion on a $25,000 funding request for
the Logan County Tourism Bureau. For a more detailed breakdown
of what was discussed here, please read LDN’s other article
about this meeting.
After the discussion on the Tourism Bureau, the board then
turned to a discussion on allocating Geographic Information
System (GIS) money to the Assessments Office GIS. Jennifer Grant
has been working on GIS since Tracy Bergin was let go from the
Zoning Office. The board moved this issue on as well.
The next item discussed by the board was the approval of a
liquor license for the Korn Krib. A person called to ask about
this, but Schmidt stated that she could not find a number to
call them back about filling out an application, something that
had not been done. This was sent back to committee until an
application was filled out.
The final item on the agenda for Finance was an update on the
Logan County jail expansion. The bids started coming in for the
project and are higher than the board budgeted for. Previously,
the board expected the project to cost about $6.8 million. The
lowest bid so far, however, has been $7.4 million. It was also
shared that the federal government cut broadband funds to the
state. Several board members received an email from the state
saying that they were unsure of how this was going to impact the
broadband grant. Several board members stated that, if the
broadband project were to die because of this, they would have
some money to put toward the increased cost of the county jail
expansion. The board stated that they are likely going to be
voting on a bid at next month’s meeting.
The Transportation committee was next, with only two items on
the agenda. The first item was an update on the Show Bus for
Logan County. Wessbecher shared that the grants for Show Bus
have been updated and accepted. The second item was a statement
saying that the committee had approved the Airport liability
insurance with Starr Insurance. The insurance increased by $9,
as they updated their coverage of fuel from 6,000 to 10,000
gallons.
The last committee was Zoning and Economic Development, who also
had two items on the agenda. Both of them were things that came
out of the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). The first was an
ordinance for personal solar energy systems. The updated
ordinance restricts ground mount solar projects in areas that
are zoned residential with some exceptions. The second item was
an ordinance regarding home occupation regulations. The ZBA
chose to leave in-home daycare out of the ordinance. Nelson
stated that he did not agree with having an ordinance for home
occupations, stating that the government did not need to know
what people have in their homes. He called the ordinance an
“overreach.”
There were a few more things to be
discussed after this, starting with the outside elevator to the
courthouse going down. The issue has been resolved, but it cost
$16,000. Bids were taken for the building of a wheelchair ramp on
the south side of the building, but that cost would be somewhere
between $40,000 and $50,000. It was also stated that Conahan will be
taking over as the Chairman of the Building and Ground committee.
After these updates, the two candidates who are looking to take over
the vacancy that was left in District 3 after former board member
Julie Bobell resigned introduced themselves. These two individuals,
Cindy Gleason and Kevin Knauer, introduced themselves and answered a
few questions from the board. For a rundown of what these two
candidates said and how they answered the questions they were asked,
please read LDN’s other article on this meeting.
Once Gleason and Knauer finished speaking, the board went into
executive session to interview candidates for the open
Administrative Assistant position. There were several people present
who were asked to stay. Everyone else was asked to step out.
[Matthew Boutcher] |
