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Logan County Board
April 2026 Regular Board Meeting
[April 27, 2026]
On Wednesday, April 22nd, the
Logan County Board held their regular monthly meeting in the
first-floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. There was not
enough space for everyone in the room, but due to the courthouse’s
interior elevator being down, the Board was unable to move the
meeting to the larger second or third floor courtrooms.
Board members present included Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Hannah
Fitzpatrick, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman, Keenan Leesman, Bob
Sanders, and Gil Turner. Chairman JR Glenn, Lance Conahan, Michael
DeRoss, Kathy Schmidt, and Jim Wessbecher were absent.
The meeting started with an invocation by Warren Smith from Eminence
Christian Church in Atlanta, who was introduced by Turner. Smith
read some scripture out of The Bible and spoke on how it related to
the meeting. He then prayed over the meeting. The Pledge of
Allegiance was performed after the invocation.
Guests were then given the opportunity to introduce themselves. Many
chose to do so while also including their town of residence. The
county was well represented with citizens from Lincoln, Latham, Mt
Pulaski, Cornland, and more.
The consent agenda was voted on without any changes and was approved
with a unanimous vote, except for Fitzpatrick who abstained due to
an item in the consent agenda. Her husband, Andy Fitzpatrick, was
appointed to the Board of Commissioners of the Logan County Housing
Authority.
Nelson then made a change to the
agenda, with the Board’s permission, and moved the Finance Committee
action items ahead of the other committees. This was due to a
presentation that was set to be given on an audit from fiscal year
2025. In the absence of Committee Chairman Schmidt, Vice Chairman
Kuhlman presented the action items for the committee.
Kayla Mormann, the director of CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), was present
to give the audit report. Her report gave the board members an
understanding of Logan County’s financial standing compared to prior
years. Mormann stated that many of the numbers she presented were
similar to the previous year’s audit, like income from property
taxes for example. A vote was then taken to accept the audit, and it
was approved unanimously.
The next action item was to go out for bid for “risk management
county insurance.” There was no discussion on this item, and it was
approved unanimously. Following this was the approval of the
Community Benefit Fund (CBF) request from the Atlanta Public
Library. This item was also approved unanimously without any
discussion. Next was to approve a $500 donation to the Lincoln
Public Library summer reading program. This too was approved
unanimously without discussion.
The last item the Board voted on from Finance was for a $250
advertisement page in the Logan County Fair Book. Leesman clarified
that this amount and the $500 to the summer reading program were
coming out of the CBF. The Fair Book motion was then approved
unanimously.
The next committee with action items was Building and Grounds. With
the absence of Committee Chairman Conahan, Vice Chairman Fitzpatrick
presented the motions. The first item was a quote from Blinds Galore
to replace blinds in the courthouse. The cost of these replacements
would be $39,614.40. No discussion was had on the motion, and it was
approved unanimously.
This vote was followed by a motion to make a change to the bench in
the first-floor courtroom. This change would be to make a movable
extension to the bench so that all Board members can sit and face
the audience when having meetings in that room. The company this
motion was set to hire was Foster Construction and it was in the
amount of $25,147.08. No discussion was had and the Board voted
unanimously in favor.
Next was a motion for the Board to approve a proposal from Heart IT
“for New Voice VLAN for Cloud Phones.” The amount of this proposal
was $1,630. Leesman asked that this motion would be contingent upon
whether the VLAN would be needed. He stated that he did not see that
it was going to be needed for certain. The Board agreed with
Leesman’s understanding. The Board approved this motion unanimously.
Finance’s final motion, which was also passed unanimously with no
discussion, was for lighting for the Memorial Wall in the
courthouse. The motion was to hire B&B Electric, and the amount was
$780.
The next two committees had no action items to be voted on. These
committees were Executive and Personnel, as well as Safety. Safety
Committee Chairman Knauer did state that any action items he had
were covered with the appointments made in the consent agenda.
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Transportation was
next, with six action items on the agenda. In the absence of
both Committee Chairman Wessbecher as well as Vice Chairman
DeRoss, Sanders presented the six motions. All six of the
motions were approved unanimously and without discussion. The
motions were as follows:
- A motion to add $14,851 to an
already approved amount of $68,090 for a fence project. The new
total of $82,941 would make the ten percent of the cost that the
county is required to cover.
- A motion for an Engineering Agreement. This agreement would be
with Cummins Engineering and would be for preliminary engineering on
a resurfacing project northwest of Atlanta on County Highway 25.
- A motion to approve DOAP grants for
rural public transportation.
- A motion to award a County Motor Fuel Tax contract to the “lowest
responsible bidder” for the purchase of bituminous materials.
- A similar motion to the previous one, awarding a contract to the
“lowest responsible bidder” for the purchase of bituminous materials
for a “roadway recycling project on County Highway 22.”
- A motion for an engineering agreement with Hutchinson Engineering.
This agreement would be for additional construction inspection work
at Top Hat Wind Farm and would be paid for by Top Hat.
There was also nothing on the agenda for the Zoning and Economic
Development Committee, so Nelson moved on to the Chair’s Report.
Nelson suggested moving May’s Workshop meeting to the 11th at 7:00
p.m., and the regular Board meeting to the 16th at 6:00 p.m. Nelson
explained that Glenn is not going to be in town for the second half
of May, thus the need for moving the meetings around. There was no
objection to this rearrangement of the meeting dates and times.
Nelson then moved on to the public comments section of the meeting.
The first comment was from Allison Isley who spoke to her
discontent with the response of Michael DeRoss to comments and
information that she has brought forth on the proposed Hut 8 data
center in previous board meetings. She made another argument against
the data center citing information regarding studies that have been
done on other data centers across the country.
The overwhelming majority of comments criticized the board for not
listening to the reasons given for opposing the proposed data
center. Several others mentioned DeRoss by name. There were concerns
and doubts about the tax revenue that Hut 8 is proposing will come
in, with comments suggesting the amount could be lower than what Hut
8 suggested it would be. Comments focused on quality of life, the
environmental impacts, and many other issues that have been
expressed repeatedly to the board in previous meetings over months.
While most of the comments were in
opposition to the proposed data center, one was in support. That
comment focused on the potential tax revenue, claiming that the data
center would give the county another source of tax revenue other
than just property taxes.
Toward the end of the meeting, someone asked why there was nothing
on the agenda regarding extending the 60-day moratorium on data
centers in the county. Nelson explained that, since there was
nothing that came out of committee, nothing on that topic was added
to the agenda. He additionally stated that, for something to be
voted on, by law, the board needs to have it on the agenda and have
that agenda posted at least 48 hours in advance. He did state that,
should a board member want to bring forward a motion, a special
meeting could be held, so long as that board member gets four
signatures, on extending the moratorium. Several people in
attendance then began verbally asking the members of the board to do
so.
Kuhlman stated that he would make an effort to get the four
signatures needed to meet on Wednesday April 29th to discuss
extending the moratorium. Once the comments concluded, the meeting
was adjourned.
[Matthew Boutcher]
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