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Logan County Board
December Regular Board Meeting
[December 26, 2025]
On Tuesday, December 23rd, the
Logan County Board held their regular monthly meeting at 6:00 p.m.
in the second-floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. All
members were in attendance for the meeting. This included Chairman
JR Glenn, Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan, Michael DeRoss,
Hannah Fitzpatrick, Keenan Lessman, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman,
Bob Sanders, Kathy Schmidt, Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher.
The meeting started with the usual invocation, given by guest
Senator Sally Turner. Turner shared that her brother-in-law Gil
Turner invited her. She also commended the county for having a
prayer before each meeting, something that was not done during her
tenure on the County Board. She then prayed over the board.
After the Pledge of Allegiance and introduction of guests, the
consent agenda was approved unanimously, 11-0. Fitzpatrick had not
yet arrived at the meeting when this vote was taken.
Next was a lengthy discussion on the broadband project that the
County Board has been working on for the last couple of years. The
discussion, as well as what was ultimately decided with it, is
outlined in LDN’s other article on this meeting.
After the broadband discussion, the board moved on to their action
items, starting with Conahan of the Building and Grounds Committee.
Conahan had two items to bring forward, both regarding additional
money being spent on the courthouse. The first was an additional
$125,000 to CAD Construction from the restoration fund to work on
all four sets of doors on the first floor of the courthouse. This
was unanimously approved 12-0 with no discussion on the matter.
The second item was $150,000 being
spent to modernize the exterior elevator to the courthouse. Conahan
clarified that $25,000 of that was for an accelerated timeline,
getting the company TK Elevator to get the project finished in just
sixteen days. The committee is also going to work with State’s
Attorney Brad Hauge to come up with an agreement stating that, for
each day over the sixteen days that TK takes to complete the
project, they will be fined $1,000 per day.
In a previous Building and Grounds meeting, it was discussed that
having an accelerated timeline for $25,000 might be cheaper than
renting a lift to maintain the county’s Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) compliance. Gil Turner asked about the ADA compliance
issue, and Conahan stated that renting a lift is still the plan, but
they have not obtained any prices on that yet, so it will be an
additional expense when they do. This item was voted on and approved
unanimously.
Next was Nelson with the Executive and Personnel Committee. The
first item brought forward was a change to the Logan County Handbook
regarding artificial intelligence (AI) and ordinance changes. Nelson
clarified that the AI changes were to make sure that AI would never
be used by county employees when handling sensitive information.
This item was unanimously approved.
The second item was a motion to approve Alera Group as the new
insurance broker for the county. At the Workshop meeting, Alera
Group was one of the two to present, and the board decided that they
wanted to potentially move forward with this company in their search
for affordable insurance for county employees. Conahan asked about
the term of the agreement, and Nelson clarified that there is no
official agreement yet. This vote would simply be to approve them as
the county’s new broker. Glenn then stated that, traditionally,
three years would be the term of the agreement, and he expects that
that would likely be true here as well. This was then approved
unanimously.
After the vote was taken, Glenn then shared this excitement with
this new company. He stated that, in the past four years of being on
the board, he has always asked about rates and projections and was
always told that it was too early to tell. “The fact that this group
has done this, the fact that we’ve found a partner that we like, the
fact that we’ve been open about this change, to me, is very
exciting.”
Next was the Finance Committee, whose chairman is Schmidt. She only
had one item to bring forth, a contribution from the Community
Benefit Fund for the Atlanta Public Museum in the amount of $4,900.
Amy Wertheim, director of the museum, was present to speak on the
matter. She explained that, in the past, the museum has rented out
their ballroom on the second floor for public events. This has been
an issue for several reasons, such as access to the second floor for
people who cannot climb stairs and the fact that the ballroom has
original historic walls that have been defaced during some of the
events.
Wertheim continued, stating that the money would be going to help
renovate a room on the first floor that could be used as a public
space to rent out. This is something that the Atlanta community
needs, as there are not a lot of rental spaces available. She also
brought a list of events that are being planned for this space, as
well as sharing that nine people have already asked about renting
the space.
DeRoss then asked several questions. He asked who would own the
space and was told it would be the Library District. He asked about
where the profits would go, and was told to the museum for things
such as maintenance and bringing guest speakers in. Next, he asked
why they did not increase the local tax levy or float a bond for the
funds. Wertheim explained that the museum and library are officially
going to split, and that the museum will be filed as a 501(c)3
non-profit. This is to get federal funding for the museum. DeRoss
asked if Atlanta Tourism has contributed any amount to this fund.
Wertheim answered but requested her answer be kept off the record
beforehand.
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Several board
members agreed that the status of the non-profit is a big foggy
at the moment. That being the case, they were not very confident
in giving the money before the museum was officially a
non-profit. A secondary motion was made to return this motion to
committee. It was approved 10-2, and so the motion went back.
The two no votes were Turner and Leesman.
Knauer was next with the Safety
Committee. He did not have any action items to bring forward but did
give an update on the Logan County Safety Complex expansion. He
stated that the progress has been going well. He did state that
several of the drainage items were going to have to be installed
later and would accrue some additional expenses.
Wessbecher was next with the Transportation Committee. All four
items were approved unanimously with no discussion. The first item
was a motion to approve an agreement with the Illinois Department of
Transportation to use federal funds to pay for half of the County
Engineer salary in 2026. After this was a motion to approve the
County Engineer’s salary as $134,742 for 2026, and to use the Motor
Fuel tax and the federal funds to do this. Next was a motion to take
$95,000 from the Motor Fuel tax for “payroll related expenditures”
in 2026. The final item was to approve an engineering agreement with
Veenstra and Kimm for $35,175 to design replacements for two
culverts near Elkhart.
After the action items, Wessbecher shared that they are looking to
have a special Transportation meeting on January 23rd for public
transportation. He shared that several groups from the county are
going to be invited to make sure they know about the public
transportation options in the county and make sure the county is
meeting all of their needs in this regard. He stated that it would
be more of a “fact-finding” meeting.
The final committee was Zoning and Economic Development, whose
chairman is DeRoss. He only brought forward one item, that being a
motion to amend the zoning ordinance to increase the application
fees on commercial energy projects, such as wind and energy storage,
to $5,000 per megawatt. This item was approved unanimously with no
discussion.
Glenn then spoke on some phone calls that he and other board
members/county employees had been getting regarding the new proposed
data center that a company is trying to construct in the county. He
stated that these phone calls have been in regard to infant
mortality rates around data centers. He shared that these calls were
likely to continue coming in and advised the board members to let
people know that the data center is not yet official. Regional
Planning and the Zoning Board of Appeals need to determine if the
land can even be rezoned before the board will hear about it. Knauer
also stated that he has been telling people that the company looking
to build this project has not even given an official presentation on
their project yet, so there are still a lot of unknowns.
Zoning and Economic Development
Officer Al Green then spoke on a very recent update that he had
received regarding the data center. According to Green, it is going
to be one building, but that building will be very large. He stated
that the estimated cost of the project would be about $5 billion,
bringing in $40 million in construction permit fees for the county.
He stated that the county would get about $65 million in property
taxes over the course of fifteen years. He shared that the company
had officially agreed to partner with Heartland Community College in
Lincoln to help train employees. Green stated that this would help
keep many of the jobs that would be created by the data center in
Logan County rather than going out to Decatur.
The meeting was then adjourned, but there was another very short
special meeting that was held after. Glenn stated that an item was
brought forth from a special Executive and Personnel meeting earlier
that evening. The item was to get the county to put a “Federal
Scholarship Tax Credit” on the ballot for March 17th. Glenn admitted
that he did not know much about it, but it is backed by local
Representative Bill Hauter and is only to put on the ballot for the
public to vote on, not for the board to approve themselves.
The board then read through the motion for a moment, and Glenn
mentioned that this item would be to allow state funds for K-12
private schools and homeschools for academic needs. The board then
approved the motion unanimously before adjourning the second
meeting.
[Matt Boutcher]
[Text received from file]
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