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Logan County Board
August Building and Grounds meeting - part 1
[August 12, 2026]
The Building and Grounds
Committee of the larger Logan County Board met for their monthly
meeting on Monday, August 10th at 5:30 p.m. in the first-floor
courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. The meeting lasted beyond
8 p.m. and will be covered across two articles on
LincolnDailyNews.com
All five committee members were in attendance including Chairman
Lance Conahan, Vice Chairman Hannah Fitzpatrick, Gil Turner, Dale
Nelson, and Jim Wessbecher. Both Turner and Nelson were late to the
meeting.
The committee started by approving the previous month’s minutes
before old business. There were two items, starting with the request
for proposal (RFP) for a new roof for the Logan Building. Conahan
shared that the RFP was posted and they were waiting for bids to
come in.
The second item was an update on Latham Park. Conahan explained that
Nelson was the one primarily working on this and Nelson had not yet
arrived. Conahan stated that he knew some cement was poured and some
equipment was installed, but nothing more. Fitzpatrick shared a few
more details, stating that the musical instruments were installed,
as well as part of a spinning toy. Additionally, there was one part
that was damaged that is going to be replaced.
Conahan moved the committee on to new business, of which there were
15 items in total. First was a discussion on replacing floors in the
courthouse. Several people who work in the courthouse were present
for this discussion, including County Clerk Kelly Elias, State’s
Attorney Brad Hauge, and Judge Jonathan Wright. Restoration
Specialist Bill Walter was also present and invited Chris Weaver of
Carpet Weavers to speak on the project.
Walter shared a preliminary
timeline for the work. They planned on starting on the third floor
due to the fact of the floor replacement being a messy process. The
idea was to not have to return to a floor with any of their
equipment or materials after it had been completed. There would be
"secondary routes” to locations throughout the courthouse. The
estimated start date for this project would be near September 21st.
Weaver explained they wanted to make sure to have everything in
order before starting. They want to make sure that the tiles are all
manufactured and passed inspection before the project starts to
avoid any unnecessary delays. The plan is to break each floor into
three or four sections with each estimated to take two to three
weeks to complete. The floor will need time to set after it is
leveled. He shared that the work will occasionally be very noisy.
Conahan asked about work hours, and Weaver explained they usually
begin around 7:00 a.m. and end about 3:30 p.m. Conahan stated this
aligns with security’s schedule and could give them time to get
noisier work out of the way before courthouse business begins.
Wessbecher asked about elevator access when the tile around the
entrance was being replaced. Weaver stated they had several ideas
for this but had yet to decide. Walter explained that two of their
options, either do weekend work or to build a small ramp over the
tile work. Judge Wright asked about the state seal on the first
floor, and Walter assured him that the seal would be preserved.
Discussion continued over logistics of specific employees and
offices when work was being done. Walter, Weaver, and the committee
did their best to plan.
Nelson had now arrived and asked why the committee was focusing on
replacing the floors when the roof was still leaking. Conahan told
him that they were discussing the floors. Nelson repeated his
question and Conahan repeated himself as well. Nelson made a comment
about not receiving an answer before the committee moved on to the
next item.
The second new business item concerned choosing an electric supplier
to the county buildings. A list was put together by Adam Schmidt of
Stone River Group LLC. Schmidt was present remotely to speak on the
matter. He shared that he had put together a list of multiple plans
and suggested Direct Energy/NRG. This plan would be at a fixed rate
and would likely end in savings of around $23,000 for the county.
The committee made a motion to move Schmidt’s recommended plan on to
the Workshop meeting on Thursday for further consideration.
Next on the agenda was an item that the committee had been working
toward for months. Heart IT, the county’s IT company, earlier in the
year revealed that the county would need to replace their server at
the courthouse. Heart IT had issues that caused the county to miss a
deadline that would have put the replacement at less than $30,000.
This is notable because, according to
Illinois law, counties with less than two million inhabitants
are required to put projects out for an RFP if they exceed $30,000
in cost.
This is also notable because Heart IT’s representative, Sheila
Feipel, stated she was not sure her company could service the new
server if they did not install it. This could require the county to
have a separate contract with a different company for the server
than for the rest of their IT.
The county decided to put out an
RFP and get bids on the server replacement, telling Heart that they
could not guarantee their bid would be the only bid, nor could they
guarantee that their bid would be the one accepted. The law also
states that counties are required to accept the “lowest responsible
bidder.”
At this meeting, it was revealed that two bids had been submitted.
The first was from Heart. Wessbecher opened it and it was in the
amount of $54,554.92. Feipel shared that it “meets or exceeds” every
qualification required. Before the second bid was opened, Nelson
asked Feipel whether they would be able to service a server
installed by another company if that bid was the winner. Feipel
stated that it would depend on the manufacturer. If the other
company used a manufacturer Heart did not work with it could get
complicated working on the server.
[to top of second column] |
Conahan noted that
the bid expired four days from the date of the meeting. He asked
if Heart would be willing to honor the price if it passed out of
committee. The regular board meeting to fully approve the motion
is not scheduled to be held until after that four-day window.
Feipel explained that it would depend on if anything changed
with the manufacturer.
Wessbecher then opened the second bid
Steven Baker with GFI Digital. This bid was in the amount of
$83,575.31. It was determined that Heart IT’s bid won, and the
committee unanimously agreed to move the bid on to the Workshop
meeting. Fitzpatrick noted that, as for the deadline of the bid, a
special meeting could be held before Thursday’s Workshop meeting to
approve it. The committee agreed to this, and Nelson reminded them
that the agenda would need to be posted the day after the meeting to
avoid an Open Meetings Act violation.
The fourth item on the agenda regarded
a Building and Grounds budget discussion going into next year.
Conahan shared that the budget for their committee was set at
$599,900. The breaks down to $195,000 for building projects, $54,000
for the server replacement, and $100,000 was budgeted for the Logan
Building roof replacement. Conahan mentioned that he had spoken with
Feipel about other items Heart has identified that need to be
addressed in the near future.
Feipel was invited to speak again, sharing that Heart had identified
four other items that needed to be replaced. They were hoping to do
these items in “waves,” as they understand that the county does not
have the capital to do them all at once. The four items were
replacing cables, replacing switches, and installing a new firewall
and wireless.
Nelson asked about the broadband project the county previously
approved. With that project, the courthouse is going to serve as the
“hub,” where all the fiber will run to and out into the county.
Feipel shared some concern with that idea, stating that the current
firewall would not be able to support that, stating that replacing
the firewall might be the first area Heart and the county should
focus on. Conahan stated that the county can apply for the Viper
Mine grant, and that some of those funds could help with funding for
future Heart work.
The next agenda item was about future locations for County Board
meetings. The Board is approved for five meetings a month in the
courthouse, but no more. Conahan shared that the city of Lincoln was
willing to rent out The Linc Room to the Board, but that it seemed
they wanted to enter into a contract with them. Alternatively,
Conahan shared, they could go back to the Oasis but would be subject
to their schedule for use of that space.
A third option turned out to be the most popular. This would be to
hold the meetings in the basement of the Logan Building. Conahan
explained they would need to install a wheelchair lift to make the
space ADA compliant he was not sure of a price on that. Installing a
lift would make that building fully ADA compliant and could assist
the Veterans Assistance Commission in using the space with veterans
who cannot get up and down stairs.
Nelson said he liked the idea of the
Logan Building because it could save money on security. He asked, if
they were going to spend money on a lift, why they would not just
keep holding their meetings there permanently.
Chief Deputy Josh Pharis spoke on a concern that a meeting held in
the first-floor courtroom of the courthouse last month caught the
attention of the fire marshal. They came in and determined the
capacity of the room to be 35 people, something that security is
going to start paying more attention to. Pharis said they would need
to see what the capacity of the basement would be.
Next came an update on the courthouse restoration project, as well
as an update on the exterior elevator work. Walter stated that the
bell crib is mostly finished. The builder asked the committee if
they wanted a roof to keep rain off the bell crib. Walter had two
suggestions for not adding the roof beyond the added cost. First,
the bell and all the mechanisms were built to be waterproof and
weather resistant. Second, the wood of the bell crib is expected to
last for 70-80 years, and a roof may only extend the life of that
wood by 20 or 30 more years. Additionally, he shared that it could
have an impact on the sound when the bell rings.
Walter stated they were going to have to discuss when to take down
the exterior lift since the exterior elevator is in working order
and nearly completed. He shared that floor and wall epoxy for the
first-floor men’s restroom is being planned and that paint work in
other parts of the courthouse is being conducted. The interior
elevator would need to be reworked soon, and he was taking steps to
mitigate the cost as it could easily exceed $750,000.
Next, Walter stated he would be meeting with a representative from
TK Elevator about their issue. The county hired TK Elevator at a
higher cost to do expedited work on the exterior elevator. The
primary reason was to have the elevator down for the lowest amount
of time possible, as the county feared an ADA violation. A time
frame was given, and both parties agreed that TK would pay $1,000
per day in fines for each day they exceeded the time frame. The work
took much longer than expected, and the fines grew to a large
amount. Walter stated that he expected a “respectable/substantial”
reduction in cost on TK’s end. He said that, for all the
“kerfuffle,” TK did a good job.
It was at this time that the committee moved on to a discussion
about purchasing a truck from the Highway Department. For the second
article on this meeting, click
here.
[Matt Boutcher]
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