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Logan County Board
February workshop meeting
[February 23, 2026]
On Thursday, February 19th, the
Logan County Board held their monthly Workshop meeting in the
second-floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. The meeting
was attended by eleven of the twelve board members. Present were
Vice Chairman Dale Nelson (who was leading the meeting), Chairman JR
Glenn, Lance Conahan, Michael DeRoss, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Kevin
Knauer, Keenan Leesman, Bob Sanders, Gil Turner, and Jim Wessbecher.
Kathy Schmidt was the only one absent.
The Pledge of Allegiance was performed, guests were introduced and
the previous month’s meeting minutes were approved. Nelson then
quickly moved on to the committee reports, beginning with the
Building and Grounds Committee. Committee Chairman Conahan had
several items to bring forth. The first item was a motion to approve
a proposal from Widmer for furniture for the first-floor courtroom
in the amount of $29,571.59. The next item was a use of grounds
request from the Zonta Club of Lincoln. This request was to place
pinwheels in the courthouse lawn from April 19th-April 25th, 2026.
The third item was to approve the booking of the Central Illinois
Santa on December 13th, 2026. All these items were sent to the
regular meeting next Tuesday without any discussion.
The next item Conahan brought forth was an amendment to the County
Board budget. Conahan shared that there was an error when the budget
was approved. According to Conahan, the public safety tax line item
needed to be increased by $1.2 million. After Conahan’s brief
explanation, the item was approved.
Conahan’s next item was a motion to approve the final payment to
American Scaffolding. For many months, the county has been working
with American Scaffolding to figure out what the county owes for the
scaffolding that was placed outside the courthouse when the dome was
being worked on. There was a disagreement on the exact amount owed.
Conahan stated, originally, American Scaffolding claimed Logan
County owed them $225,782.88. He stated that they were able to reach
an agreement of $140,000. He also shared that the company is willing
to pay for a portion of the damage that was done to the concrete
around the courthouse by their crane. With all that said, this item
was also approved.
The final item was for having the server hardware replaced at the
courthouse. Leesman stated that he and Conahan had a meeting with
the representative from Heart IT and all their questions on this
matter were answered. An item had been left out of the initial
proposal. The second part was the hardware migration, moving all the
computers over to the new server. Both items were moved on to the
regular meeting.
The final item was a motion to approve the proposal for Latham Park.
Lincoln Christian Church (LCC) made a $15,000 donation to the County
Board to have some new equipment put in at Latham Park. This motion
would be for the County Board to match LCC’s donation. LCC found two
pieces of equipment that they would like to purchase that would cost
$22,000 and $7,000. Nelson shared he asked Conahan to make the
motion off the floor at this meeting. Glenn asked where the money
for the match would come from, and Nelson stated that it would be
coming out of the Community Benefit Fund (CBF). Nelson also shared
that installation of the equipment would be done by volunteers from
the church and would not cost the county anything.
Glenn cautioned this, stating that they would want to be covered in
case something happened and it had not been installed by
professional contractors. Nelson stated that he was only wanting to
have the board match the donation this month, and then they can work
out further details later. DeRoss wanted to know if they ran this
past the county’s insurance company. Nelson stated that he could
reach out and have an answer on what they have to say on the matter
before Tuesday’s meeting. Wessbecher also asked about shipping
costs, which Nelson stated he would try to get before Tuesday.
The next committee report was from
the Executive and Personnel Committee. The first item was for a
resolution regarding the States Attorney Appellate Prosecutor. The
next four items were raffles for the Logan County Republican Central
Committee, Poker Run: Salt Creek Abate Chapter, Friends and Family
Relay Team, and Illinois Trappers Association. There was no
discussion on any of these items and they were all moved to the
regular meeting.
Glenn made a motion off the floor. He stated that they have a
contract with Alera Group for insurance brokerage services. He
stated that the contract was just sent over that day and made a
motion to approve it.
Next was the Transportation Committee. Committee Chairman
Wessbecher’s first motion was for an intergovernmental agreement
with Middletown to allow for a radar speed sign to be installed on
County Highway 15. The next item was a joint funding agreement with
the Illinois Department of Transportation to use state funds to
replace two culverts near Elkhart. The next item was an engineering
agreement with WHKS on a bridge rehabilitation project on County
Highway 1. There was one final item that Wessbecher brought off the
floor. This was a motion to approve a contract with County
Contractors Incorporated for $10,450 to repair a bridge on County
Highway 14. All items were approved for the regular meeting.
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The next committee
was Finance, with Committee Vice Chairman Kuhlman bringing
forward the items. The first of four items was a CBF request
from the Atlanta Public Library for some assistance in
renovating a room they would rent out. Kuhlman stated that some
paperwork and applications on the library’s end is not complete,
so they are going to table to motion for the time being.
The next three items were resolutions, with the first one being
an update to the county’s credit card policy. The next was for a
list of 2026 designated banks. The final resolution stated
“Logan County Tourism Bureau as Logan County’s Agency of record
for tourism promotions for the Illinois office of Tourism” in
2027. There was no discussion over any of these items.
Next was the Safety Committee, and Committee Chairman Knauer had
two items. The first, which was on the agenda, was a resolution
for an updated Illinois Emergency Management Mutual Aid System
agreement. Knauer stated that, in short, this agreement states
that Logan County would agree to help other counties around it
in the case of a disaster, as well as those countries agreeing
to help Logan County.
Knauer’s other motion was to approve the updated Animal Control
contract with the city of Lincoln. Wessbecher wanted to know if
the city had seen and approved this agreement, and Conahan
stated that he had seen a lot of “email traffic” regarding it.
There were several concerns among members of the board regarding
this contract, and so the board agreed to move a motion to the
regular meeting to send this contract back to committee.
The Zoning and Economic Development Committee was next, and
Committee Chairman DeRoss stated that they had no items to bring
forward. Glenn then made a motion to place a 90-day moratorium
on accepting new applications for data centers. He stated that
after 90 days, if they were wanting to extend the moratorium,
they could do so.
Lincoln Daily News interviewed Glenn
on the proposed moratorium that can be read by clicking
here.
Nelson asked for an update on battery storage, and Zoning and
Economic Development Officer Al Green spoke on the subject. He
stated that he went to a seminar in Springfield. Some lawyers that
have been working with the counties gave sample ordinances on
battery storage that they felt would not violate the new law
requiring counties to accept them. Green suggested getting a battery
storage ordinance in place soon. He stated that the new bill will
take effect in June, and that he thinks a lot of companies are
waiting until then to get their applications submitted.
At the seminar, Green asked if counties could reject battery storage
facilities if they do not have the equipment and personnel for fire
protection. According to Green, he was told counties could not
reject applications for this reason. He did ask about an
environmental liability policy and was told the lawyers thought it
was a great idea. He stated that he is proposing to add this to an
agreement with any data centers or battery storage projects in the
future.
Additionally, Green added that counties will have 60 days to get
applications approved for any new wind, solar, and battery storage
facilities before they are automatically approved. He asked if they
could consider an application incomplete if the company does not
have all the required information regarding details of their
facility and was told yes.
DeRoss gave an update on the ordinance for data centers. He stated
that they are still ironing some details out and are trying to have
the State’s Attorney Brad Hauge look it over.
After all the committee reports, a motion was made to move next
month’s regular board meeting from March 17th to March 27th, due to
the 17th being election day.
With all the business out of the way, the meeting was adjourned.
[Matt Boutcher]
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