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Logan County Board
March Building and Grounds Committee meeting
[March 12, 2026]
On Monday, March 9th, the Building
and Grounds Committee of the larger Logan County Board held their
monthly meeting in the first-floor courtroom of the Logan County
Courthouse at 5:30 p.m. All five of the committee members were
present; Chairman Lance Conahan, Vice Chairman Hannah Fitzpatrick,
Dale Nelson, Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher. Also present was Kelly
Jo with Heart & Flour Bakery Equal Kneads Bakery, and Bill Walter
who is overseeing the courthouse restoration.
The committee began by approving their previous month’s minutes.
Conahan then started by moving down to the first of two use of
grounds requests. The use of grounds requests are always placed at
the end of this committee’s agenda, however, Conahan usually allows
guests to speak on their request so they do not have to sit through
the entirety of the meeting. The use of grounds request that Conahan
jumped to was for Heart & Flour to use Scully Park.
Kelly Jo stated that she was requesting to host a Good Neighbor Day
event on May 16th. The event would be for local businesses and
organizations to be able to set up tables at the park and give out
information to the public on what services they provide for the
community. Jo added she was hoping there could also be some games
for people in attendance to play.
Conahan asked if there would be food trucks present, and Jo stated
they would if they could. Nelson suggested if there were going to be
food trucks, Jo go to the Lincoln City Council to see about getting
some streets blocked off. Conahan stressed the need for liability
insurance, something that the county has started requiring for
public events hosted on county property. The committee agreed to
move the request to Thursday’s Workshop meeting, pending Jo can
provide proof of insurance.
Conahan then moved on to the other
use of grounds request, being for bikers against child abuse on the
courthouse lawn. This would be for pinwheels to be placed in the
lawn from March 31st to May 1st. The request was also moved on to
the Workshop meeting.
Conahan next moved to the only item under old business, which was
for a county light resolution. This resolution would allow requests
to be made to change the color of the courthouse lights for
different events. Conahan stated that the idea behind the resolution
would be to keep the county from having to change lights due to
anything political. In a previous meeting, Nelson stated that he
would like to see the lights changed for things like honoring local
school sports teams for achievements such as winning significant
games.
The committee discussed some of the limitations they had put on
school teams, such as limiting the schools that can request to high
schools. Nelson suggested that they add junior high schools as well,
but only for state level competitions. Much of the committee agreed
to this, but Turner pushed back stating that he thought it should be
as narrow as possible to keep too many requests from coming in.
Walter then spoke on the process of changing the lights, stating
that they have to be programmed, and it is not a simple or quick
process. Turner made a motion to leave the resolution as it was
previously. The committee disagreed but did move the motion to
Workshop to let the rest of the board have a say on whether to
change the resolution or leave it the same. A rollcall vote was
taken and passed 4-1, with Wessbecher being the only ‘no’ vote.
Sheila Fiepel from Heart IT arrived between the introduction of
guests and the end of old business. There were many items in new
business, one being an updated quote from Heart for the server
replacement that was passed last month. Conahan moved this item to
the front of the line and allowed Fiepel to speak on the matter.
Conahan started by stating that the quote went up by $16,000. Fiepel
explained the reason behind this increase was due to their
distributor raising their prices. She continued that their increase
in price was due to tariffs as well as data centers buying up all
the memory that is used to make the servers. Fiepel stated that she
feels very bad about this due to a mistake being made. The board
tabled this motion in a previous regular meeting due to some
questions that were not answered. It turns out that there was a
portion of the quote not provided to the county. Fiepel stated had
that mistake not been made, the county would have already approved
this and would have been able to get the equipment for the
previously quoted price.
The committee then discussed that any project totaling over $30,000
is required to be sent out for bids with the lowest bid being
accepted. In that scenario, Heart IT may not be the company the
board would go with. Nelson stated that the committee has not always
been consistent with sending things out for bid, and he would advise
them to consider that.
Fiepel stated that their original quote is good until March 18th.
The board’s next regular meeting is not until after that, however.
The committee discussed the possibility of having a special regular
meeting to get this approved, but Conahan stated he did not believe
he would be able to get a regular meeting on this item alone. A
motion was made to move the motion for the updated quote on.
Conahan continued with new business with the next item being an
update on the courthouse restoration project from Bill Walter.
Walter stated that there are a lot of small things being done, such
as wood being stained or problems with the internal elevator being
addressed. Wessbecher asked about the progress of finding a lift for
the stairs for when the exterior elevator is down for renovations.
Walter stated that they were in the process of acquiring one.
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The next item was
briefly discussed. A phone would need to be placed in the
exterior elevator in case of emergencies. The phone that was
priced would cost $4,200. Wessbecher asked if one could be found
cheaper, and Walter stated that it was possible. The committee
then moved the motion on to Workshop with the condition that the
phone would cost no more than $4,200.
Next, the scaffolding invoice from American Scaffolding was
discussed. In short, the county had a disagreement with the
company on the amount owed for scaffolding provided during
restoration project. The two parties met and agreed on $140,000.
Conahan stated that they are waiting for American Scaffolding to
sign the agreement before they send it on to be paid.
Next was the donation made by Lincoln Christian Church (LCC) for
new playground equipment. Several months ago, Pastor Ron Otto of
LCC presented a $15,000 donation to the county that the church
was hoping could be used toward new equipment at Latham Park.
Conahan reached out to the insurance company and stated they had
no issue but cautioned against using volunteers to help install
the equipment.
The next item was a brief discussion on the ice rink at Scully
Park. Fitzpatrick, who had to leave earlier in the meeting, is
working with the high school to tear down the skating rink, and
all the tiles are set to be stored at the airport.
Lighting at Scully and Latham parks were discussed next. B & B
Electrical made a proposal for new globe lights. Conahan stated
that Fitzpatrick said the one globe light that was installed did
not look right. B & B then made a new proposal that would have
metal wiring around the globe lights to keep them protected in
case a ball was to hit them. This updated proposal was for
$15,890. A motion was made to approve this proposal. A roll call
vote was taken and unanimously approved.
The next three items were all proposals from B & B Electrical
for various lighting work. The first was for vestibule light
replacements, the second for the exterior walls, and the third
for exterior dome lighting. The amounts of these were $2,654,
$5,307, and $76,700 respectively.
The second item, the wall lights, would be angled down, would be
at the corners of the courthouse, and would illuminate the
walkways around the building. Walter stated that, for the last
of the three proposals, he was getting different amounts
proposed from B & B than he was with another company. He asked
the committee to table the motion for the time being so he can
determine which of the two companies would give the county the
better deal. The other two of these three proposals were
approved.
Next on the agenda was an updated proposal from Gibson Teldata,
a company the board recently hired to help the county update
their phones. A meeting was held with all the department heads
where it was determined they did not want to move from their
current wired phones to wireless ones. Conahan stated, while
this did save the county in monthly cost, it would cost more up
front, as reprogramming old phones would be more expensive than
getting new phones and simply setting them up. A motion was made
to move this on to Workshop and was approved unanimously.
After this was a CCS Solutions proposal. An employee from the
company made two suggestions to the county. Conahan stated that
the employee, who used to work for the county’s former phone
provider Frontier, wanted to offer the county money, or purchase
phones back that he had sold to them. Several months ago, it was
discovered that the phones the individual sold to the county
were used. These phones were advertised as new. Conahan stated
that the individual was hoping one of these two options would
relieve this person of any potential liability with the county.
The committee decided to take the $2,000 payment and keep the
phones they were sold. Conahan stated that he was going to send
this item on to State’s Attorney Brad Hauge and move it on to
the Workshop meeting.
The next item on the agenda was a
quote from i3 Broadband for a backup internet provider in case their
current provider, Xfinity, goes down. Conahan stated that they are
going to move this to old business for next month until they have a
meeting with Heart about it.
The second to last item on the agenda was for window treatments. The
judges asked for new blinds to be purchased, as the current blinds
do not completely cover the windows. The new proposed blinds would
be vertical wooden slats that would cover the full length of the
windows. The cost for each window would be around $31,000. The
committee decided to move this to old business until they could get
an official quote and work out more details with different
departments.
The final item on the agenda was regarding the fountain at Scully
Park. Conahan stated they need a solution to keep the fountain
operating throughout the summer in case it needs to be cleaned or
needs other maintenance. He continued that it currently needs to be
fixed, as there is a leak. The committee shared that they have not
been able to get ahold of the person who worked on it previously. It
was decided to move this item to old business so the committee can
work on getting something worked out to vote on before their next
meeting. Shortly after this, the meeting was adjourned.
[Matt Boutcher]
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