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Logan County Board
September Safety and Finance Meetings
[September 09, 2026]
The Logan County Board held its
Safety and Finance meetings on Tuesday September 8th in the rotunda
of the Logan County Courthouse starting at 5:30 p.m. Committee
Chairman Kevin Knauer, Vice Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Bob Sanders, and
Lance Conahan were present. Member JR Glenn was the only absent
committee member.
The committee had no old business to discuss and got right into new
business. They started by discussing a replacement garage door for
the Animal Control building. Conahan informed the committee that a
company installed a $652 opener, but it was later discovered that
the door was rotten. Midwest Garage Door Company gave the committee
two proposals for door replacements priced at $3,320 and $2,750.
The committee had some discussion on the matter but ultimately
decided to go with the more expensive of the two. Sanders shared
that the more expensive door was made of steel, and therefore more
secure. A motion was made to approve this door from the contingency
fund and passed.
A discussion on the Animal Control budget was the next item on the
agenda. Conahan brought up the fact that their budget has about
$20,000 left for the year, and that their building and maintenance
budget is over by a couple hundred dollars. He stated that his
intent for bringing this up was to make sure the committee is aware
going into budget season for the 2027 fiscal year.
This brought the committee on to the various department reports,
starting with Animal Control. Jame Whiteman, Warden of Animal
Control, shared that it had been a busy month. Whiteman stated they
were over capacity on both dogs and cats, with some dogs having to
share a kennel and some cats having to share a cat cage.
Josh Pharis was next with the Sheriff’s report. Pharis stated that
his department had hired two new deputies, who were at the top of
their class. He shared that they were having some IT issues, but
that none of them were security related. Pharis then announced that
one of their deputies had resigned to go work with state police.
Don Peasley, the Logan County Coroner, gave his report last. His
report was mostly on paper, but he did share that there was one
autopsy and fifteen deaths the previous month. The committee then
adjourned.
Several minutes later, the Finance Committee commenced their
meeting. All five committee members were present. These committee
members included Chairman Joseph Kuhlman, Vice Chairman Kathy
Schmidt, Dale Nelson, Keenan Leesman, and Lance Conahan. Like the
Safety Committee, Finance did not have any old business. New
business had four items.
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The first item was
a Community Benefit Fund (CBF) Request from the Lincoln Emblem
Club. Leesman shared that the club was asking for $500 but
stated that he only felt that the last two items fit the CBF
guidelines. These items were buying ten pairs of shoes and
feeding five families. The committee proposed and passed an
amendment that would approve the request as long as the funds
went toward those two items. The committee then passed the
amended motion.
The next three items were all resolutions. Circuit Clerk Kelly
Elias was required to make a change to a 2019 resolution and
explained the reason being a small law change. There was a
resolution for a tax year 2025 tax sale. The committee passed
both items.
The final resolution was supposed to be for a judicial budget
amendment. Conahan shared that an email had come in requesting
this item be removed from the agenda, and so it was.
Schmidt shared that she had an update she wanted to give. She
had been speaking with a representative on the funds that Cresco
agreed to pay into the CBF years ago. These funds, which had not
been paid by Cresco, are supposedly going to be coming in again.
Schmidt stated that the Cresco representative stated they are
“done” paying other counties but agreed to pay Logan County
$25,000 per quarter for the next two years, upon which time they
would re-evaluate.
Public comments were next. Uriah
Kilgallin, the new CEO of Lincoln Economic Advancement and
Development (LEAD), provided his opinion of the Cresco funds.
Kilgallin shared a proposal that he put together with the members of
the committee, along with his business card. He also told the
committee members he was open to working with them to help “maximize
economic return.”
The committee adjourned the meeting after a couple other brief
public comments.
[Matt Boutcher]
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