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Logan County Board
November Workshop Meeting
[November 15, 2025]
On Thursday, November 13th, the
Logan County Board held their monthly Workshop meeting in the
second-floor courtroom of the Logan County at 6:00 p.m. Of the 12
members on the board, nine were present for the meeting. The members
present included vice chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan, Michael
DeRoss, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman, Keenan Leesman, Gil Turner,
Jim Wessbecher, and chairman James Glenn. Absent members included
Hannah Fitzpatrick, Bob Sanders, and Kathy Schmidt.
Once all guests had introduced themselves and the previous month’s
meeting minutes had been approved, Nelson moved the board onto the
committee reports. The first was Building and Grounds, whose
committee chairman is Conahan. The only item on the agenda was a
motion to approve a bid for A5 Lawn Care to do the mowing for county
properties for one year. The cost of this was set at $34,480.
Conahan stated that he wanted to table this motion, to which DeRoss
stated it cannot be tabled if it was not made. Conahan then stated
he would not make a motion to bring it forward.
Conahan brought up several other items that were not on the agenda.
The first was for B & B Electric to set up lights at Latham and
Scully Parks. The cost for these lights would be $10,880, and would
include “new globes, new heads, LED lights with GFI receptacles,
and… 15 LED lights being installed at the Logan Building.” This
motion was moved on to the regular board meeting next Tuesday for a
formal vote.
Next, Conahan brought forward a
motion to approve new desktops from the company the county has been
receiving its IT services from, Heart IT. The cost for these new
desktops would be $23,008.64 and would include 23 desktops in one of
two models with a three-year warranty. This motion was moved on to
the regular board meeting. A second motion was made regarding
laptops, which Conahan stated they were purchasing 14. Twelve of
those laptops were coming to board members. The cost of these
laptops would be $15,366.87. Turner asked a clarifying question,
wanting to confirm that these laptops would indeed need to be
returned after the board members term, to which Conahan informed him
that they would need to be. This motion was also sent to the regular
board meeting for vote.
The final motion Conahan brought forward was regarding a quote from
Carpet House for the Treasurer’s office, which would cost
$13.590.88. Conahan also informed the board that this amount would
be billed to the courthouse restoration project. This motion was
moved on to the regular board meeting.
Before ending his committee report, Conahan let the board know about
an expenditure that his committee had approved at their meeting this
month. This expenditure was to hire a company to make two visits to
the courthouse each year to maintain their geothermal system. To
read more about the company hired and the details of the
maintenance, LDN’s article on the Building and Grounds committee
meeting
here.
Leesman then wanted to go back to the topic of the laptops, asking
how data is going to be shared between them. Conahan stated that
they are using a “S Drive” and a “VPN.” Leesman then stated that
Heart IT may charge more to assist the county in setting these
things up, as they are not always very easy to do on your own.
The next committee report was from Executive and Personnel,
presented by Turner. There were many motions on the agenda, with the
first one being to close the Logan County Courthouse on December
26th. Turner then stated that they would be giving everyone in the
courthouse the day off, but that he was not on board unless it was
going to be everyone that works for the county. Personally, he
stated that he would like everyone to come to work that day but did
not feel only giving people in the courthouse the day off would be
fair. Conahan added that he was also not in favor, stating that if
people want the day off, they can use their PTO. Nelson then chimed
in, stating that he doesn’t have an issue with giving people a day
off, but would rather it be up to the department heads if they are
going to give their department the day off. Knauer added that there
could be an issue between union and non-union employees, as the
union employees get some holidays off that non-union employees do
not. DeRoss also floated the idea of “flexible holidays,” stating
that they might take away a day off like Columbus Day and instead
give the employees the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas instead
for next year.
The next five agenda items all had motions made and were sent to the
regular board meeting with no discussion. Each motion was to approve
someone to the Logan County Board of Health. These five individuals
were Jason Coble, Richard Bivin, Amit Sapra, Kara Curry, and Kara
Davis. The item after this was to approve a contract between the
Tri-County Regional Planning Commission and Logan County. With the
exception of clarification that this contract was the same as last
year’s, there was no discussion on this motion either.
Next, a motion was made to approve some changes to the Logan County
Employee Handbook. Nelson stated that these were made due to some
changes in the law, but otherwise no other changes had been made.
The final item was a motion to approve a raffle for United Riders MC
Special Olympics. Both this and the previous motion were sent on to
the regular board meeting.
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Nelson then gave
the floor to Wessbecher, who is the chairman of the
Transportation Committee. The first motion was to appropriate
$1,276,980 from Logan County’s Motor Fuel Tax Fund for a 2026
maintenance program. This item was moved on to the regular board
meeting without any discussion.
The second agenda item was regarding an engineering design study
for a ditch along 1400 Road. Wessbecher stated that this is land
that is owned by the county and must be maintained. The
engineering study was to install a new drainage system to keep
the area from flooding. The project is estimated to cost $1.5
million, but 95% of it would be paid for by the state.
Turner stated his issue with the project, arguing that they
would be paying a lot of money to move water out of an area
faster. He had an issue with the cost, stating he felt it was
too expensive. He also stated that the area drains now, so the
drainage system would only move the water faster, adding that it
could cause flooding in the area the water is being moved to.
Nelson also asked what the benefit of the county would be.
Wessbecher explained that the area has to be maintained, and the
county cannot currently find someone who will mow the area. He
also added that money the county is putting up has to be used or
it would be lost. Leesman then asked why the state wants the
county to agree to the project before the design study,
something Wessbecher mentioned earlier. He stated that the
design study will inform the county of the official cost.
Wessbecher stated that this is just what the state wanted and
would not be on board without it.
Wessbecher then brought up a couple of items that were not on
the agenda, starting with moving up to $25,000 from the county
bridge fund. He stated that several culverts needed to be
replaced.
He also stated that there have been some questions with Show Bus
for Logan County. He stated that he and DeRoss have been looking
into whether the county is getting the service that they expect
and are paying for. Nelson then asked why other counties have
been dropping Show Bus. He stated that he had heard several
rumors that money may have been misappropriated within the
company. DeRoss explained that fraud is “too strong a word,”
also, stating that they were not necessarily using the best
accounting practices. He has been going through and checking to
make sure that everything is correct on Logan County’s end.
With this, Nelson moved on to the Safety Committee, whose
committee chairman is Knauer. Knauer stated that there were no
action items but did give an update regarding the Energy
Transition grants following the closing of the Viper Mine. He
stated that several departments have been receiving their
payments, including the Sheriff’s Department and the Emergency
Telephone System Board (ETSB). The amounts these two have
received are a little over $88,000.
The Zoning and Economic Development
Committee was next, with committee chairman DeRoss giving the
report. DeRoss deferred to Al Green, the Zoning and Economic
Development Officer. Green gave an update regarding increasing fees
for both applications and permits for energy projects. This
information was previously reported on by LDN during the Zoning and
Economic Development Committee meeting. For information on these
proposed changes, please read LDN’s article
here.
Green also talked about a new data center that is trying to be built
out near Latham. LDN also reported on this previously from the same
meeting. In this article, however, it was stated that this data
center will be for mining bitcoin. It has since been brought to
LDN’s attention that this is not the purpose of the data center, and
that its official purpose has not yet been stated. To read more on
this new proposed data center, click
here.
This then brought the board to the Finance Committee report. With
committee chairman Schmidt being absent from this meeting, vice
chairman Kuhlman gave the report. There were three items on the
agenda to amend the budget. These amendments were to confirm some
movements the board had made with the county’s money previously.
There was a lengthy discussion over where $2 million has been taken
from and moved to in regard to the broadband project. The board
ultimately stated that it would be looking into exactly where this
money was moved to ensure that they had it and would not lose track
of it.
Before the end of this committee report, Nelson then brought forward
the idea of making a motion for hiring someone to help with filing
in the Zoning Office. Nelson stated that he wanted to make sure the
wording in this was clear, either with a clear end date or a set
limit on how much the person would be paid. He wanted to make sure
that this position did not eventually become a full-time position,
as that was not the intent. Ross made a motion to hire someone, but
capping the amount they would be paid at $12,000.
After this, the board voted to go into executive session, having
covered all the items on their committee reports that were listed on
the agenda.
[Matt Boutcher]
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