Logan County Board
August Safety Committee Meeting

[August 15, 2025]  On Tuesday, August 12th, the Safety Committee of the larger Logan County Board met for their monthly meeting. This was only the committee’s second meeting since their inception last month. Additionally, since last month, Kevin Knauer was named the Chairman of this committee, with Kathy Schmidt serving as the Vice Chairman. In addition to the Chair and Vice Chair, committee member Lance Conahan was also present. Absent were members JR Glenn and Bob Sanders.

After attendance and introduction of guests, Knauer announced that there was no old business to attend to, moving the committee on to new business, of which there were several reports.

The first report was the Sheriff’s report, presented by Logan County Sheriff Mark Landers. Landers confirmed that the committee wanted him to start giving a monthly report on the Logan County Safety Complex expansion project, to which they stated they did. Landers then gave his update, stating that the asphalt had been removed from the back lot and that a large tree had also been removed. Landers also shared that a sidewalk was built to the rear entrance, but that it was a bit steeper than he thought it was going to be. Landers shared that O’Shea Builders, the company in charge of the construction, set up a brace to make the sidewalk safer.

Landers continued, stating that August 18th is when major construction is set to begin. O’Shea is planning on putting around thirty pillars in the ground to help stabilize the foundation. He also stated that they had already run into a few unanticipated expenses. The first was builders' insurance that O’Shea needs for their equipment and the materials, as they are going to be left outside and could be damaged or stolen. The second was a $20,000 expense for survey fees. Since the survey fee should have been included in the cost before this point, Landers got O’Shea to agree to eat this cost.

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Landers and the committee then talked about the computers that are in the Safety Complex. It was stated at a meeting in July that Windows 10 is no longer going to be supported soon. It has been discussed potentially replacing the computers. Landers stated that his building likely has as many computers as the Courthouse. Landers also mentioned that Hart IT’s prices have been a bit expensive for his department. What started as $1,800 per quarter for IT support has become $1,800 per month. Landers shared that they used to have an in-house IT person, but that person left for another job elsewhere. He stated that having their own IT person may be better for his department.

The committee then addressed Logan County Coroner Donald Peasley for a coroner’s report. Peasley shared that his office has conducted more autopsies this year than they normally do. They tend to average about thirty per year, but have already done twenty-seven. He also shared that the county averages 20-30 deaths per month. After a few more updates from Peasley, Knauer suggested having him submit a written report each month. He stated that Peasley could attend in person if there was something out of the ordinary that he had to report on.

The last department that was supposed to give a report was animal control. Jane Whiteman was unable to be present, but Schmidt shared that she brought up many issues. The committee recommended that they encourage Whiteman to make it to the next meeting to address some of her concerns.

A few other things about how the meetings are to operate were mentioned after this. Once these discussions came to an end, the meeting was adjourned.

[Matt Boutchers]

 

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