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Logan County Board
Special Finance Committee and Workshop Meetings
[March 13, 2026]
On Thursday, March 12th,
members of the Finance Committee and the Logan County Board held two
meetings. The first was a special Finance Committee meeting
rescheduled from Tuesday, March 10th. Previously, there were not
enough committee members present to make a quorum (the minimum
number of members present for the meeting to be held), so that
meeting was canceled.
This special Finance meeting, as well as the Workshop meeting that
followed, were held in the second-floor courtroom of the Logan
County Courthouse. The Finance meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and was
less than ten minutes long. Three of the committee members were
present. Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Vice Chairman Joseph Kuhlman, and
Lance Conahan were all in attendance. Dale Nelson and Keenan Leesman
were absent.
The meeting began with the approval of the minutes from the previous
month. Then, with no old business to discuss, Schmidt moved the
committee on to the three items under new business.
The first item was a Community Benefit Fund (CBF) request from the
Mt Pulaski Hilltop Club. Conahan stated that he and Kuhlman were at
the Logan County Tourism Bureau (LCTB) board meeting last night, and
the Hilltop Club had $500 given to them from the LCTB. Conahan
argued that, since the County Board gives $5,000 per year to the
LCTB for events such as the Hilltop Club event, he did not think the
committee should approve this request. He stated that it seemed like
“double dipping.” The other two members agreed, and the request was
denied.
The second item on the agenda was another CBF request from Carroll
Catholic School. Schmidt stated that the request was for anywhere
from $100-$300 and would be used for a “cosmic bingo” event. Conahan
stated that he had no issue with this request and made a motion to
pass it on to the Workshop meeting in the amount of $300. Kuhlman
seconded the motion and the request passed.
The final item was a request for a liquor license for the Sugar
Creek Lodge. Madelyn Hinton, the Board’s Administrative Assistant,
stated that the license was a class A tavern license. Schmidt stated
that liquor licenses of that kind are $700 for the year but are
pro-rated if issued after the start of a fiscal year. Kuhlman made a
motion for this application and Conahan seconded it, also moving it
to Workshop. The meeting was then adjourned.
The Workshop meeting started about twenty minutes later, and eleven
of the twelve members were present. Present members included Vice
Chairman Dale Nelson (who made it after the Finance meeting),
Chairman JR Glenn, Lance Conahan, Michael DeRoss, Hannah
Fitzpatrick, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman, Bob Sanders, Kathy
Schmidt, Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher. Keenan Leesman was the only
member not present.
Turner led the room in a prayer, asking for health and wisdom over
the board members, and then the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
The previous month’s minutes were approved, and then Nelson (who was
leading the meeting) moved the board on to the committee reports,
starting with Building and Grounds.
Building and Grounds Committee
Chairman Conahan had several items to bring forth, starting with the
county light resolution. This resolution would allow requests to
change the colors of the lights on the courthouse. To read more
about this resolution, click
here. No further discussion was had on the resolution, and it
was moved to the regular board meeting later in the month.
Conahan next brought up an updated request for new servers that the
county had previously discussed. The new server, which was set to be
provided by Heart IT, went up by $16,000. To read more on the reason
behind this increase in price, please see the above link. Conahan
further stated that he discussed the matter with State’s Attorney
Brad Hauge and was told that since the amount is now over $30,000
total, it would have to be put out for bid.
Sheila Fiepel, the county’s account manager with Heart IT, was
present and requested to speak on the matter which Nelson allowed.
The first thing she mentioned was the desire to protect Heart’s
intellectual property. She stated that some of her company’s
technicians had worked very hard getting things together and setting
the price for the quote. She also stated that, should the county go
with another company, Heart would not be able to maintain that
server as it would not be theirs. She asked Conahan if he could ask
Hauge about this detail and if it changed anything.
Conahan stated that he would check but that Hauge informed him the
board would not have to go with the lowest price, but the one that
was “most reasonable.” Some conversation was then had on the
specifics of the price increase, as well as other details. Glenn
then urged the board to stay on topic and encouraged that the
conversation be saved for the next committee meeting. Conahan stated
that he would be making a motion to take the item back to committee
at the regular meeting.
The next item on the agenda was a proposal by CCS Solutions. The
representative from the company, previously from Frontier, sold the
county phones that were advertised as new but were refurbished.
Further, it was discovered that some of the phones were stolen
property, but Conahan stated there was no way to know which ones
were and which ones were not. The proposal was for the
representative to give the county $2,000 and allow the county to
keep the phones. DeRoss took issue with the fact that some of the
phones were stolen, asking what the county would do if someone came
back looking for their stolen property. Conahan stated that they had
in writing from Frontier that, since the phones were purchased in
good faith, they would not come back for the phones in the future.
The last two items on the agenda from Building and Grounds were for
use of grounds requests. The first was from Heart and Flour Equal
Kneads Bakery to have a good neighbor event at Scully Park on May
16th. Conahan stated that the organizer of the event, Kelly Jo, knew
about the need for liability insurance and would have proof of it
submitted with the county before the event. The second request was
from Bikers Against Child Abuse to place pinwheels in the courthouse
lawn from March 31st to May 1st.
Conahan had two additional items not on the agenda that he brought
off the floor. The first was a motion to purchase a lift from
Ameriglide for $10,277, which was down from their initial price of
$11,000. This lift, which is fully enclosed, would be set up to
allow wheelchair access to the county while the exterior elevator is
down for repair.
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The second item
off the floor was an updated quote from Carpet House to install
carpeting in the Treasurer’s office. This quote was for
$14,255.93. Conahan stressed the need to get this work done
soon, as a counter is set to be installed in that office next
month, and the carpet work would need to be done before then.
This then took the board on to the Executive and Personnel
committee report. Turner had several items, most of which were
changes to the county employee handbook. In short, these
included changes to employee discipline, suspension, and
dismissal, an update to the compensation personal vehicle use
for work, to allow ten vacation days to roll over into the next
year, and county contributions to insurance for employees on
unpaid medical leave and when those contributions would need to
be paid back.
The final two items were to officially
recognize the Mt. Pulaski High School Hilltoppers basketball team
for their IHSA runner-up finish. The board stated that the girls
would be invited to the regular board meeting later in the month.
The last item was for a Lincoln YMCA raffle.
Schmidt, who is the committee chairman of the Finance Committee,
asked Nelson if he would be able to move her committee report up, as
she had to leave. Nelson obliged her. Schmidt had two items to bring
off the floor, those being the CBF request from Carroll Catholic
mentioned above, and the liquor license application. DeRoss
mentioned that, for the liquor license application, the county
ordinance states that there is supposed to be a liquor control
board. Seeing as how the county does not have one, he encouraged the
committee and the board to look into this.
Next was Transportation, whose committee chair is Wessbecher. He had
two items on the agenda, and two he brought off the floor. The two
on the agenda were to award the 2026 Motor Fuel Tax contract to “the
lowest responsible bidder,” and the second was for an engineering
agreement with Veenstra & Kimm for preliminary work on a storm sewer
project on County Highway 10 in Elkhart.
The two items off the floor were an agreement with the Illinois
Department of Transportation (IDOT) for repairs to County Highway 1.
Wessbecher stated that IDOT funding would cover up to 80 percent of
the cost. The second item was for a supplemental engineering grant
with WHKS $13,899.54. This would be for a bridge replacement project
near Mt. Pulaski.
The final committee report was for Zoning and Economic Development.
Committee Chairman DeRoss had only one item, bringing on Mark Pruitt
from the Power Bureau to perform a study on the proposed Hut 8 date
center. Earlier in the month, the committee asked Pruitt to add a
few things, such as a water impact study and property value study,
to his list of work. Pruitt told DeRoss that those things were out
of his area of expertise, but he could determine the impact a data
center of the size that Hut 8 is proposing would have on the local
power grid.
Glenn asked if DeRoss could reach back out to Pruitt and see if he
knew of any other professionals that could perform some of the other
studies the county would like to have done, and DeRoss stated he
would. DeRoss added that he and several other members would be going
up to DeKalb soon to see the location where a data center is being
built. Additionally, DeRoss stated that he had sent off the battery
storage ordinance change to their attorney for review.
The final committee report was from Safety, whose chairman is Knauer.
Knauer stated that they did not have enough members for a quorum on
Tuesday, and so they had not had a meeting. They had rescheduled
their meeting for the 19th. DeRoss asked Knauer if he wanted to
bring forth a motion on the Animal Control contract with the City of
Lincoln. Knauer stated that they were expecting action on this item
and brought it forward, leaving it open to be changed at the regular
meeting. The motion was made to bring forward the contract,
contingent upon some amendments that will be discussed at the
regular meeting.
This then brought the committee reports to a close, and Nelson
opened the floor to public comments. Fiepel spoke, stating that at a
recent meeting with Leesman and Conahan, Leesman had suggested she
come before the board and share some of the things that Heart IT is
doing for the county to give the board a better understanding of
what their services are and have been.
Fiepel stated that Heart provides a
“proactive, full-managed service.” This is different from their
previous IT provider, in that the previous provider only responded
when things went wrong, whereas Heart manages the county’s
technology and keeps it operating smoothly.
Fiepel continued, that they manage the county’s servers and
desktops, and perform patches and upgrades to these devices. She
then informed the county that they have an AI program that monitors
each user and their behaviors on the computer. If it notices unusual
behavior and determines the behavior to be “malicious,” it will lock
the computer down to protect their systems from hacking.
Additionally, Fiepel shared that they have a technician that comes
to the county once a week, and there is an online ticket program
that employees can use to get IT assistance remotely without waiting
for the technician.
Nelson stated that he would like to see a monthly email from Heart
sharing what work was done for the county in that time. Fiepel
stated that she would talk to her team and see if this is something
that could be done. Glenn stated that he would like to talk to
members of the team once per quarter to get an update on what work
has been done and what work still needs to be done, which Fiepel
stated would be possible.
There were no further public comments, and so Nelson entertained a
motion to adjourn.
[Matt Boutcher]
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