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Logan County Board
December Building and Grounds Meeting
[December 10, 2025]
On Monday, December 8th, the
Building and Grounds Committee of the larger Logan County Board held
their monthly meeting in the Blue Room of the Logan County Safety
Complex starting a bit after 5:30 p.m. Of the five committee
members, four were present including Chairman Lance Conahan, Dale
Nelson, Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher. Vice Chairman Hannah
Fitzpatrick was not in attendance. Also in attendance were Bill
Walter, Larry and Beth Olson, Administrative Assistant Madelyn
Hinton, and board member Kathy Schmidt.
After attendance was taken and guests were introduced, the committee
approved their previous month’s minutes. The Olsons were present to
discuss a use of grounds request involving setting up a nativity
scene on the Logan County Courthouse lawn. This item was near the
end of the agenda. Conahan moved it up to the top so the Olsons
would not have to sit through the entirety of the meeting if they
were not planning on doing so.
The use of grounds request would go from December 9th until January
3rd. The request was discussed briefly, with Larry Olson showing the
committee members some pictures of the nativity scene from previous
years. Conahan asked about the need for liability insurance, and it
was decided that they did not need any so long as the Olsons agreed
that there would be no liability to the county should something
happen to the scene. Larry agreed to this and a motion was made to
move the request to Wednesday night’s Workshop meeting.
Since the committee was already discussing the first use of grounds
request, Conahan suggested they discuss the other before going back
to old business on the agenda. The second request was to change out
the story walk book at Latham Park to Pete the Cat. A motion was
made to move this item to the Workshop meeting as well.
Conahan then moved the committee on
to old business. The first of the two items regarded getting a
backup internet provider for the courthouse. This is an item the
Building and Grounds committee has been working on for several
months. Conahan stated that he is currently waiting to hear back
from i3 Broadband for a quote. The second item under old business
was a retention policy for emails from Heart IT, the county board’s
current IT company. Conahan is trying to determine if they are
compliant with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and is also
waiting to hear back from the county’s contact with the company on
this matter.
This took the committee on to new business. There were seven items,
the first being an update on the courthouse restoration project.
Walter, who was present virtually on a video call, stated that steel
scaffolding is being set up inside the courthouse. It is being
constructed in such a way that people will be able to walk under it
when navigating around the courthouse. This is to get to the stained
glass panels near the dome above the third floor, and work on those
is set to begin in a week.
Walter also stated that glass panes
and the copper around the base of the dome was nearing completion.
Conahan shared a photo taken by Walter’s Project Manager showing the
progress from the courthouse roof.
In addition to this, the first floor courtroom renovation is
complete. Some modifications are being made to make this courtroom a
dual courtroom/county board meeting room. Walter also shared that
the women’s restroom is nearing completion, and that everything with
that and the security area should be complete by next week. Work on
the bell crib/mount has slowed, as the weather has made it difficult
for the company to do this work. Walter also stated that B&G
Electric has addressed many of the lighting issues in the
courthouse.
At the end of the update, Conahan stated that this month is Walter’s
last payment for overseeing the restoration project, and that his
contract is going to have to be extended. What followed was a
lengthy discussion about this contract and the wording within.
Nelson wanted to ensure that the project did not go on for an
undetermined amount of time. He argued the need for more clear
wording as to an end date to Walter’s contract, or possibly a list
of projects that needed to be completed before the contract would be
considered complete. Walter stated that he had no issue with this
and even encouraged the board to talk to State’s Attorney Brad Hauge
about getting clearer language in the contract before it was
renewed.
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Next, a short
update was given on invoice updates from American Scaffolding.
In the previous few months, it was shared that the county and
American Scaffolding, the company that provided exterior
scaffolding for the courthouse restoration project, did not have
an agreement on how much money the county owed the company. This
being the case, the county has been working with American
Scaffolding to get to a number that both parties can agree on
for several months. The matter is still being investigated for
now. The
next item on the agenda regarded new phones for different offices in
the county. The county board paid for a few phones for departments
that did not have the means within their budgets. Other departments
purchased new phones with money from their budgets. Nelson asked
about the cost of the installation of these phones, as the company
doing so is charging about $175 per phone. Conahan stated that, due
to them selling the phones at cost, the company makes their money
through labor costs. In addition, he also shared that the
programming of these phones is difficult, something that was
corroborated by Hinton.
The next item, that being “light resolution enhancement” for the
courthouse, was put on old business for next month’s meeting.
According to Conahan, Fitzpatrick was the one who wanted this put on
the agenda, and since she was absent, the committee decided to wait
until she was present to discuss the matter.
After this, the next item discussed was a labor invoice in the
amount of $19,425 for the installation of new computers at several
county departments. This item was unanimously passed to Workshop.
Next came a change order for CAD Construction. Conahan stated that
the courthouse doors on the east side of the building had been
changed, but not on the other three sides. He also stated that
having CAD do this now would be cheaper than having them come back
out after they have finished their current work on the courthouse.
This change order would add $125,000 to the restoration cost.
The final item discussed was in regard to the exterior elevator that
gives people who are unable to climb the courthouse stairs access to
the building. The cost to modernize the elevator would be $150,000,
but over the last few months, the committee has stated it is needed.
The elevator is prone to breaking down, and should it break down
completely, the cost of fixing it would be very high.
Walter stated that, due to the nature of modernization, the elevator
would no longer be allowed to be grandfathered into old codes. This
means that things such as fireproofing would need to be done for the
elevator to be up to code. Some of the increased cost would also be
due to the need to have the company that is going to be doing the
work expedite the process. With the time that it takes to get the
elevator modernized, the courthouse would not be Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant.
The committee is planning for this as well, looking into renting a
lift for the twelve days the company states they would need to get
the project done at a faster rate. At a previous month’s meeting, it
was determined that paying for the lift for twelve days and paying
the company an extra $25,000 would be cheaper than not paying that
extra amount and renting a ramp for a much longer period.
Turner then said that if the county is going to have to pay for a
lift, they should build penalties into the contract with the company
should they go over the twelve days they are saying it will take to
get the work done. Nelson suggested $5,000 per day, but the
committee feared this would be too high. They did not want the
penalties to be so high that the company does a poor job just so
they can get it done. It was generally decided that $1,000 a day
would likely be sufficient encouragement.
The last idea brought forward about
this item was from Nelson, who asked if the state grants exceptions
to ADA for extenuating circumstances. He stated that, since the
elevator would be down for maintenance and that the county would be
actively working on becoming ADA compliant again, the state may have
a grace period. It was said that County Recorder Kelly Elias would
likely know the answer to this, so Nelson said he would reach out to
her.
With discussion on this item ending, a motion was made to adjourn,
bringing the meeting to a close as well.
[Matt Boutcher] |
