[0:00] Here's the batch that you guys whoever
want
[0:06] » that's already been paid here.
>> Everybody's not
[0:11] » the reports.
>> Yeah, you got spares.
[0:14] » I got spares.
>> Thank you, sir.
[0:31] Okay, thanks.
[0:39] » Everyone at 7:01, so I'll call the
meeting to order.
[0:46] Um, do we have anyone here from the
Ministerial Alliance?
[0:53] I'm not seeing anybody. Andy, would you
mind?
[0:56] » I don't know. Thank you. If everyone
would stand for the invocation and the
[1:01] pledge,
[1:06] Father in heaven, we thank you, Father,
for the opportunity we have to live in
[1:09] the greatest country in the world and to
govern ourselves, Father. Father, we ask
[1:17] you to be with this board. Give us
wisdom and understanding that the
[1:21] decisions we make tonight will be the
right decisions for this county. Father,
[1:26] we thank you for your love for us and we
love you. And this we pray through
[1:30] Christ's name. Amen.
>> Amen.
[1:34] » I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic
[1:41] for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
[1:48] justice for all.
[1:56] Okay. Uh, Katherine, will you call the
role
[2:03] » here
[2:12] » mountain?
[2:23] Shepherd
>> here.
[2:26] » Bartman
>> here.
[2:27] » Joey.
[2:36] » Okay. Our um first order of business is
a close session
[2:42] uh regarding the um FOP agreement with
the employees at the sheriff's
[2:48] department. So, if the board members
could please uh go into the other room.
[2:56] We need a motion. I know. And David, if
uh if you want to join us for this, that
[3:01] would be fine. So, do I have a motion to
go into close session? Seeing Tom. Uh
[3:07] second,
Derek. Any discussion?
[3:12] All in favor? I
>> I.
[3:15] » Any oppose? Nay.
>> Motion carries.
[3:20] The streaming will remain on just for
those of you staying in this room
[3:26] » and we will be back just as soon as we
can.
[12:43] Cheers.
[16:31] special.
[16:40] Okay.
[20:59] » [sighs]
[24:01] [clears throat]
[40:05] » Oh my god.
[40:09] chair.
>> Not my chair may not make it through the
[40:13] night.
>> Yeah,
[40:19] it only raised a half inch when I sat
down. It's all good.
[40:27] And I'm excluded from work.
[40:32] There's another chair.
Squeeze.
[40:37] I was actually
[40:43] » okay.
[41:05] Okay, we are back in open session. Do I
have a motion to resume open session and
[41:12] close the end the close session? Derek
[clears throat]
[41:16] second.
Tom, any discussion?
[41:21] All in favor? I
>> I.
[41:24] » Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries.
[41:30] Okay.
Then item five, discuss and possibly
[41:35] approve proposed sheriff's department
fraternal order police union agreement
[41:42] for fiscal years 26 through 2027.
[41:48] » Motion to approve
>> the contract.
[41:52] » Was that Tom?
>> Yeah.
[41:54] » Okay. Motion by Tom, second by Lance.
Um, under discussion, I would just like
[42:00] to say for the open session that we uh
have an agreement with the Fraternal
[42:09] Order of Police
um to
[42:17] uh form a contract with them for years
2026 and 2027.
[42:23] It is uh per the agreement. There are
some
[42:28] uh minor wording issues, but the main
points of the agreement are that for it
[42:34] would be a two-year contract.
For each of those years, there would be
[42:39] a 3.5% raise for those union members.
And the insurance wording in the
[42:49] contract would be the status quo.
[42:55] So, um,
[42:59] » it was approved this morning uh
unanimously, I understand, by the union
[43:05] employees at the sheriff's department.
And so, we're asking that uh the board
[43:11] approve it tonight. And also in
approving it uh the uh by doing so the
[43:20] union representative will work with our
legal counsel to finalize the contract
[43:24] itself and you would be giving me the
authority to sign
[43:29] um the agreement with the uh
representatives for the union.
[43:35] So we have a motion on the table. Is
there any other discussion? Jim.
[43:39] » Madame chair my no my vote will be no.
It's my standard policy to never vote in
[43:44] favor of a document I have not read. I
understand that it was approved this
[43:47] morning. It's impossible to have it in
our hands tonight, but that is the sole
[43:51] reason.
Okay.
[43:55] And as Jim said, we would have liked to
have had it here tonight, but um
[44:01] it is it was just done uh this morning,
so that just wasn't possible.
[44:07] and we'd like to get this moving so that
uh we can
[44:13] uh respond to those employees with their
uh 26 raises.
[44:18] So um with that uh all in favor I
>> I
[44:24] » any oppose? Nay.
>> Nay.
[44:27] » Uh Jim and Don or nay.
[44:33] So it is 4 to two and the motion
carries.
[44:39] Okay.
[44:42] Then item six,
further discuss and possibly approve two
[44:49] commercial solar energy facilities known
as Griggsville Solar East LLC and
[44:55] Griggsville Solar West LLC
and will be located in the southwest
[45:01] quarter of section 11, Township 4 South,
range 3 west of the fourth principal
[45:08] meridian, Griggsville Township on parcel
43. 3010 0 05. And the project will be
[45:16] located approximately east of Illinois,
Route 107, south of 325th Avenue, and
[45:24] north of 320th Avenue.
Um,
[45:29] I understand that there are
representatives here
[45:34] uh from the solar project who would like
to speak uh after they
[45:40] uh are heard. If there is anyone else
here who wants to speak on this matter,
[45:45] I would give them time now rather than
wait until the end of the meeting for
[45:49] open uh for public comments. Uh so we'll
take comments on this now and then it's
[45:55] our intent to go into close session to
uh discuss this, but we'll get back to
[46:01] that. So please, if you'd introduce
yourself and
[46:04] » Yeah. Hi, thank you so much for having u
me here. I'm Natalie Holden. I'm
[46:08] litigation counsel for Navison. Um we're
here regarding the denial of our permit
[46:14] at the July 29th board um meeting. Um we
have sent a letter addressed to the
[46:21] county um outlining our position that we
believe the denial was legally improper
[46:27] and that we would intend to be appealing
that denial to the courts. Um and we we
[46:34] are willing to litigate and we do stand
by our arguments. However, we really
[46:38] primarily just want to be cooperative
with the county um and work with the
[46:42] county to get this adopted.
[46:48] Um we think there's there's benefits to
the county and and we are a really good
[46:52] neighbor and we really like to cooperate
with the county and address any concerns
[46:56] with the county that they may have had.
But as I mentioned, we are prepared to
[47:00] litigate. Uh I did just briefly want to
go into our legal arguments. Um, so, uh,
[47:06] the public hearing was held on June
22nd. Uh, I was present at that hearing
[47:12] [snorts] and, um, as of the June 22nd
hearing, the Winnebago County decision,
[47:17] which Mr. Filbert referenced last month,
had already been decided. So, I was very
[47:23] aware of what the case law said. And um
the case law does say that counties can
[47:29] consider certain factors or standards in
approving the a permit as long as um
[47:36] those factors are adopted by the county
ordinance. And um as Mr. Filbert
[47:41] referenced again last week, those those
factors have been adopted by Pike
[47:45] County. Um we refer to them as the
hearing factors A through G. And um we
[47:51] were aware of of the law. We were aware
of the case law and we were fully
[47:55] prepared to discuss these factors if
they came up at the public hearing. Um,
[48:00] we prepared with the client before we
had evidence that we were prepared to
[48:04] discuss with the with the public if any
of the public commenters raised concerns
[48:10] about the factors. Um, and like I said,
I attended that hearing. I'm an
[48:16] attorney. My primary goal when I was
there was to listen to see if any of the
[48:21] hearing factors were raised and if
needed we as I mentioned we were going
[48:25] to address them. Um that night only two
public commenters spoke and neither of
[48:31] them raised any of the hearing factors.
The first public commenter uh raised
[48:37] concerns with preserving farmland
and the second public commenter
[48:42] discussed um some concerns about Navison
as a corporation. Um but uh as I
[48:49] mentioned in my letter, these are not
relevant hearing factors. These are not
[48:53] grounds for denial um under the case law
and the statute and and the ordinance.
[48:59] And um you know, we left that hearing uh
understanding that the permit would need
[49:06] to be approved at the following board
meeting um based on the public record
[49:11] that was established that night since
there was no evidence presented that was
[49:15] relevant to any of the hearing factors
and nothing that indicated that the
[49:19] hearing factors were not met.
Um there were a couple of technical
[49:23] requirements which Mr. Wyatt raised and
we did address those over the following
[49:29] month. Um at the at the board meeting on
J July 29th, I was again present and I
[49:36] was prepared to address
[49:42] I was prepared to address the Winnebago
County decision and um you know explain
[49:48] to the board that under the law that the
the permit needed to be granted because
[49:53] there was uh we had met the technical
requirements and there was no issue with
[49:58] any of the hearing factors.
Um there was some discussion and again
[50:02] nothing that was discussed by the board
had to do with any of those hearing
[50:06] factors.
As you know the board ultimately denied
[50:09] our permit and I twice asked the board
which hearing factor was not met and
[50:16] what evidence supported a finding that a
hearing factor was not met and the board
[50:22] could not articulate any reason for
denial. Um, so at that point, you know,
[50:27] I believed that the denial was improper
and went back to my client and we
[50:32] discussed that we had grounds to take
this to the court. And again, as I
[50:38] mentioned, we we do stand by our our
legal argument that we have grounds to
[50:42] appeal this and we are willing to do so,
but we really would rather work with the
[50:47] county on getting this approved. If any
county member or even member of the
[50:52] public wants to raise a concern in any
way we can address in our project, we'd
[50:58] be more than willing to, you know, work
with the county and try and cooperate
[51:02] and come up with solutions. And um we're
also would like to offer a monetary
[51:09] payment that could assist in mitigating
any of the concerns by the board or
[51:14] county members um that we would
contribute to the county to mitigate
[51:20] those concerns as well.
[51:28] Does anyone have any questions for me?
[51:34] you have talked to all the people around
your project or land owners.
[51:39] » Oh, council for the land owner is
present and he's going to be discussing
[51:43] the neighboring property owner. Our
understanding is that the current land
[51:47] owners where the project is going to be
decided have connected. There's only one
[51:51] there's only one neighboring property.
Um and we do understand they have
[51:56] connected and uh council for the
landowner is here to discuss that as
[52:01] well and can answer questions. Um but
our understanding is that the the
[52:06] individuals who live where the project
is going have connected with the
[52:09] neighbor and understood that that there
would be no objection. Now, the sin has,
[52:14] as we discussed last time, repeatedly
tried to reach out to the neighbor and
[52:18] we haven't been able to connect. But
that's why we have um council for the
[52:22] landowner present tonight to discuss
that if that's one of the concerns. And
[52:25] again, our offer still stands. We are
more than happy to meet with the
[52:29] neighbor if that would help move things
along. If the neighbor has any concerns,
[52:33] we would be willing to address those and
make accommodations. Um just to be clear
[52:38] though, we already have a setback. like
the the project is already five times
[52:43] back further than it needs to be. And
our understanding is the project is
[52:48] elevated, so there shouldn't be any
visual concerns with the project. But
[52:53] again, as I mentioned, we've really been
trying to reach the neighbor and we'd be
[52:57] happy to connect with him if he wants to
talk to us.
[53:07] Maybe at this time I should ask are
there other people here who want to
[53:10] speak to this? Uh sir,
if you want to come up uh is there
[53:17] anyone else here that
[53:24] and if you would introduce yourself and
use the microphone.
[53:37] Thank you, Madam Chairperson. My name is
Mike Barton, B A R T O N. Uh, I'm here
[53:43] today on be on with sort of two
capacities. One, I'm I'm here on behalf
[53:48] of the family, uh, the Whis family that
has been members and ownership of the
[53:53] land for a long time. Family was all
raised here. The children have all
[53:58] raised here. And I'm also here because I
am a land owner west of Pittsfield on my
[54:04] family farm that I grew up on, was
raised on, still invested in, and it's a
[54:08] place where I have uh
deep deeply care about. And so as a
[54:13] result, I've care about this county.
I've continued to try and keep a breast
[54:18] of what's going on in the county so that
I can maintain and decide what's going
[54:22] on to see that it's also good for me
that the investments that I have in the
[54:27] land and how this county is being
developed and and things going on and
[54:32] hopefully that I can pass that on that
my children and grandchildren will
[54:36] continue to feel that they can justify
owning farmland and be involved in this
[54:41] county.
But recently, these decisions,
[54:45] particularly by this board, have caused
me to have some pause and question as to
[54:49] whether this is the long-term direction
as to what I see is going on in this
[54:53] county. And with half of the owners, I
think we still know that as a land
[54:57] owner, you can develop it. You can do
things that you want. And if you meet
[55:01] the criteria that this board and
governing bodies have all set forth on
[55:06] what the rules and regulations are that
you can develop and go forward and do
[55:10] that from everything that I've seen so
far that was has been done here. Your
[55:17] parameters were all set. They've always
been there. Everybody has known. We've
[55:21] been working with this company for a
number of years and they knew what was
[55:26] required and they've met all those
criteria until all of a sudden at the
[55:30] last minute that it appears that the
goalpost got moved and I'm not sure why
[55:36] that was going on. But it from the
outside looking in it doesn't look very
[55:42] good to me or the family at this point.
So when the family was approached,
[55:50] they've had multiple times and multiple
people that given their location to look
[55:55] at development and things of this
nature. And like it or not, electricity
[56:01] demands are going up every day. Like it
or not,
[56:06] our governments have said we do not want
coal powered plants any longer. So
[56:12] something has to be done if we're going
to meet that demand. And when community
[56:18] solar projects started being developed
and and marketed around the state and
[56:24] the family was approached, they looked
at it, they evaluated it, and it
[56:29] appeared that it was going to be a
winwin situation.
[56:34] Yes, it would help produce more energy,
electricity that that the that the
[56:39] community needs. two is going to provide
a substantial increase in property
[56:44] assessments so that the Griggsville
School District and the county would be
[56:50] receiving a substantial benefit and and
the family felt very comfortable in
[56:55] knowing that their land which
[clears throat] is going to beow for a
[56:59] number of years that when it was
returned and the possession comes back
[57:03] to them when this term is over that land
is going to be even more productive than
[57:07] it is today. so that it can continue for
the next generation and be even more of
[57:12] value in the long-term production of
food uh that is going to be needed. So,
[57:17] the land is not lost from that
standpoint. Whereas, you know, yes, is
[57:23] there is there a house there? Yes. But
in my experience, I haven't seen any
[57:29] commercial development project or any
building project ever be asked for that
[57:35] doesn't have a house nearby.
I mean, we were asked to put other
[57:40] building sites out there by that house.
And so what we could have had four more
[57:45] houses out there. Well, if this person
thought they were living out in the
[57:49] country by themselves, now they suddenly
got four neighbors. We could have built
[57:53] another mashoff building out there. We
had Tucker that wanted to come in and
[57:58] put in a whole bunch of concrete and and
put up a place. So things could have
[58:03] been done, but it wasn't
the and other situations you've had and
[58:09] projects you've passed have had houses
in the neighborhood also. The family was
[58:14] very aware of the fact that that house
was there. They'd all lived there their
[58:19] entire lives and growing up. And so it
becomes a situation where because they
[58:25] knew what it was and yes the elevation
of that house and that point of their
[58:30] farm is as almost as high if not the
highest point of Pike County and then it
[58:36] falls off a lot into the area where the
rest of the the pasture and fields were
[58:41] over the years and so the family set
back what they were willing to work with
[58:46] Navis on so that there would not be near
the infringement type of situation.
[58:51] ation between that and the elevation
felt that it would be definitely
[58:55] something that was going to be favorable
and things in their life. Every time you
[59:00] have something like your neighbor can do
what they want and so just because you
[59:03] have your house doesn't mean your house
is always going to look the way it is 20
[59:07] years from now and you can't control
what your neighbor wants to build.
[59:10] Sometimes you don't even like your new
neighbor when they move in. So, but
[59:13] we're trying to be good neighbors. We're
trying to participate in all of this.
[59:18] But when you look at it, it appears to
me the county doesn't want business.
[59:21] They don't want development.
I mean, maybe you think that marijuana
[59:25] plants are going to solve the problem of
the county. Or maybe you think that
[59:30] mashoffs will build enough buildings
that will help it. This is a project
[59:33] that's here. It's now. It's going to
provide a win-win for everybody. And it
[59:39] appears to me that the county needs it.
The electricity needs the grid needs it.
[59:46] And it's a it's a benefit that everyone
should strongly think about. And it
[59:51] provides a solar community project that
is not a big anchorage that allows for a
[59:57] win for everyone. And it says that we
are trying to find a way to help the
[1:00:02] assessments of this county and this
project. So the family respectfully
[1:00:08] requests that this board reconsider and
allow the permits to go forward.
[1:00:14] Thank you.
[1:00:18] Thank you.
[1:00:28] » Hi,
>> welcome.
[1:00:29] » Thanks. I'm Rebecca Myers, Rebecca
Bratchel Myers. And I too am a lifelong
[1:00:34] resident of PI County and I'm thrilled
to be a PI county. I only want to
[1:00:38] address one thing that I've heard um
continuously at the board meetings is
[1:00:42] that um the representatives that they
haven't been able to get a hold of us. I
[1:00:47] find that very concerning. I work in the
county at the local hospital. I've been
[1:00:51] there for the last 16 years and I'm not
difficult to find or locate. If there
[1:00:57] have been meaningful efforts have been
made to reach us, I believe that contact
[1:01:01] would have been established. Hearing
publicly that you have been unable to
[1:01:05] reach us that gives the impression that
we are unavailable or unwilling to
[1:01:10] communicate which is simply not the
case. We are willing to have reasonable
[1:01:16] conversations about how the project and
the potential situ solution. However, we
[1:01:21] expect our concerns as neighboring
property owners to be taken seriously
[1:01:26] particularly because our home has a
direct and elevated view of the proposed
[1:01:31] development.
[1:01:40] Thank you.
>> Uh
[1:01:45] uh the three people who spoke, it's your
intention to stay while we're in close
[1:01:49] session and still be here when we you
can do that.
[1:01:53] » Yes.
>> I I would then unless a board member has
[1:01:58] a a question of one of the three right
now. Oh, shoot. Now, go ahead.
[1:02:12] » I I did just want to provide a little
clarity of the the monetary
[1:02:16] contributions and I really am so sorry
that I don't know how the wires have
[1:02:20] gotten crossed and I I I appreciate that
you're here. We're more than willing to
[1:02:24] work with you. We have set aside a
certain number of funds right now. I
[1:02:28] mentioned we'd be willing to make an
offer and I I'm sure some of that would
[1:02:32] be including working with the
neighboring uh owner. We that's very
[1:02:36] common and um we could work on that. So,
as of this point, we are willing to
[1:02:41] offer uh some combination of up to
$200,000 right now um to the county to
[1:02:47] allocate uh as it sees fit. Um and we're
willing to continue those discussions as
[1:02:53] well. Um, so that would be our offer for
a monetary contribution we'd be willing
[1:02:58] to work through. [snorts]
[1:03:04] » Okay. Then um
>> question,
[1:03:07] » Don,
>> how long is the time frame on this?
[1:03:09] Mike,
>> I Oh, I can stop. We um our deadline to
[1:03:14] appeal is not until October 23rd
>> and the contract.
[1:03:20] He said when it eventually would come
off of it. Oh, sorry.
[1:03:23] » Farm and go back to productive a what is
the
[1:03:28] » contract? 30 years.
>> 30 years. Okay.
[1:03:32] » And also just to be clear on our
timeline as well. Um I I would be
[1:03:36] willing to work with the county. We
really are trying to be cooperative.
[1:03:39] We're trying to be cooperative with the
the neighbors and address anything. So
[1:03:42] we're open to negotiations.
We have until October 23rd as a court
[1:03:47] deadline. So we do have some additional
time. there should be one more hearing
[1:03:51] in between. Um, and we we're really open
to like a creative solution and we do
[1:03:56] want to work with the county and be good
neighbors. So,
[1:03:59] » I think the best creative solution is
you and Mr. Meyer, Mrs. Meyer to
[1:04:04] [laughter] set out and work something
out.
[1:04:09] I I just I feel like that's
>> Oh, absolutely. And again, I I just
[1:04:13] apologize to her that that we I somehow
the wires have gotten crossed and I
[1:04:17] really am sorry. So, I'm I'm very happy
to work with you. I'm really appreciate
[1:04:21] that you came here and that we were able
to connect. So, yes, we we definitely
[1:04:24] would like to work with you. So, thank
you.
[1:04:27] » Walker, do you have any questions before
we go into close session?
[1:04:32] » Uh, yes, but I'd rather do them on
[1:04:41] a legal standpoint.
[1:04:45] I think I'm hearing something, but I
just want to
[1:04:50] Do you want to take a few minutes to do
that?
[1:04:53] » Sidebar. [laughter]
[1:04:56] » Yeah, of course. Thank you.
[1:05:03] » While you're doing that, I'm going to
move on to another agenda item, I think,
[1:05:13] » just to try and uh
>> watch our time. Um, let's
[1:05:18] [clears throat] look at item eight.
Approve previous month's regular meeting
[1:05:22] minutes.
[1:05:26] Uh, Natalie, I'm sorry, that's the
second time I've done that tonight.
[1:05:30] Catherine emailed those to us uh, Sunday
afternoon, I believe. Do I have a motion
[1:05:35] to approve those, Tom? Second by Andy.
>> Any discussion?
[1:05:43] All in favor? I
>> I.
[1:05:45] » Any oppose? May
motion carries.
[1:05:52] Um
looking at uh item 10, discuss and
[1:05:56] possibly approve the appointment of J.
Ryan Norton to commissioner of the Sny
[1:06:02] Island Levy Drainage District.
>> Motion by Andy, second by Tom. Any
[1:06:10] discussion?
All in favor? I
[1:06:14] » I. Any oppose? Nay.
Motion carries.
[1:06:22] Um,
[1:06:26] is there any new business tonight?
>> You actually skipped us seven.
[1:06:31] » Yes, I know. I'm sorry, but we're we're
not done with uh item uh six. And I I
[1:06:40] think your presentation is going to take
a longer than what they will I believe.
[1:06:46] So I was just trying to go through some
quick ones. And I am sorry. I know
[1:06:50] you're waiting.
[1:06:57] » Yeah. The bills.
>> Okay.
[1:07:02] » If you want, I could do public safety. I
mean, it's a 14-minute meeting with one
[1:07:05] agenda item.
>> Go ahead. That would be great.
[1:07:08] » Okay. Okay, I got to find it. But
>> so we are, if anyone's following us, I
[1:07:14] apologize for the jumping around. We're
on 9E. [clears throat]
[1:07:20] All right, there's high. Ah, public
safety.
[1:07:25] Okay, the public safety committee of the
Pi County Board met on Wednesday, August
[1:07:29] 19th, 2016 at 7 p.m. at the Pi County
Ambulance Building. And those present
[1:07:33] were Andy Barman, Jim Shepard. I
misspelled my own name. Board chairman
[1:07:37] Rita Hoskin and several [clears throat]
ambulance employees.
[1:07:41] Also present was Dryen Craven, probation
department administrator. Due to the
[1:07:45] internet being down at the ambulance
building all day, we were unable to
[1:07:48] review reports and bills. The internet
issues apparently on in Cascom's end.
[1:07:54] Dryen appeared to request transfer of
$50,000 from the opioid fund to the drug
[1:07:59] court fund. The use of the money for
drug court will fall under the pre
[1:08:02] parameters of the opioid settlement.
Questions were asked as to what the
[1:08:06] current balance of the fund is and how
long it will be of receiving settlement
[1:08:09] monies. Andy bar amendation mo motion to
approve the transfer and Jim Shepard
[1:08:13] seconded. Motion carried. In a follow-up
to those questions asked during the
[1:08:17] meeting, an email was sent to Walker
Filbert asking those questions. Walker
[1:08:21] reached out to the treasur's office and
was told that the balance as of
[1:08:24] yesterday that would have been uh
uh $819
[1:08:29] was $85,5924
[1:08:33] but had not been reconciled since June
30th. He checked the emails he receives
[1:08:37] from the state when deposits are made
and determined that an additional
[1:08:40] $14,72189
[1:08:43] had been deposited to the fund giving it
a balance of $100,231.13.
[1:08:48] There were no public comments and barman
made a motion to adjurnn and Jim Shepard
[1:08:52] seconded. Motion carried meeting
adjourned at 7:14 p.m.
[1:08:56] » Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve
the public safety minutes?
[1:09:01] Derek second.
[1:09:05] Don
any discussion? All in favor? I
[1:09:10] » I.
>> Motion approved. Uh let's finish uh
[1:09:15] nine.
One question, one thing we uh we did get
[1:09:18] the bills for the ambulance and would
like to get those approved tonight.
[1:09:24] » Yeah, I've got them on the agenda under
item 14.
[1:09:27] » Oh, my my bad. I'm sorry.
>> No, that's okay.
[1:09:30] » Didn't see that far down there.
>> That's all right. You're right. We got
[1:09:33] to do that. Um, on number one under 9E,
as Jim talked about in the minutes, uh,
[1:09:42] we'd like to transfer 50,000 from the
opioid settlement fund to the drug
[1:09:46] court. Do I have a motion? Tom,
>> I will second.
[1:09:51] » Second by Jim.
Okay. Any discussion?
[1:09:57] All in favor? I.
>> I.
[1:09:59] » Any oppose? Nay.
Okay. Motion carries.
[1:10:04] Okay, back on agenda item six
and 6A. Uh, Walker, are we ready to go
[1:10:11] into close session?
>> Uh, if you're ready.
[1:10:15] » All right. I do I have a motion,
Tom. Second by Don. And just for the
[1:10:22] record, this is uh prior to possible
action on the solar panels uh farm.
[1:10:28] There will be a close session to discuss
potential legal action regarding this
[1:10:32] matter. per five ILCS120/2
C11 of the Illinois Open Meetings Act
[1:10:40] pending probable or im imminent
legislation.
[1:10:44] » Litigation.
>> Litigation. Yes. Thank you. Not
[1:10:47] legislation. Litigation.
>> Uh all in favor? I
[1:10:52] » I.
>> Any oppose? Nay.
[1:10:54] » Okay. We will once again be in close
session for a while. And Greg, you're
[1:10:58] going to join us.
[1:11:27] Uhhuh. Okay.
[1:13:08] » [snorts]
[1:14:02] [snorts]
[1:14:07] » is
[1:14:22] all
[1:14:34] glorious.
[1:15:49] This
[1:16:50] Yes.
[1:17:00] Cheers.
[1:17:36] All right.
[1:17:54] Okay.
[1:18:21] There we go.
[1:19:18] Holy
[1:19:25] congratulations.
[1:20:46] All
[1:20:59] right.
[1:21:51] » [sighs]
[1:23:30] » Let's
[1:23:44] start.
[1:24:06] Cheers. Cheers.
[1:24:25] » [snorts]
[1:26:00] » You're still
[1:26:27] Do I have a motion to return to open
session?
[1:26:31] Tom made that motion.
>> That motion.
[1:26:35] » I think we need one in open session, I
believe.
[1:26:39] » I'll make it.
>> Okay. So,
[1:26:41] » Tom, second by Derek. Any discussion?
All in favor? I.
[1:26:46] » I.
>> Any oppose? Nay.
[1:26:49] » And motion carries.
Um at this point the board's decision
[1:26:55] that it took in July uh is still in
place
[1:27:01] but um
given the willingness to uh for the
[1:27:08] project representatives and the the
neighbors to uh have some more
[1:27:14] discussion and try and come to some
understandings. Uh the board is going to
[1:27:18] table this for now until our September
meeting which is the 28th
[1:27:25] and uh so there won't be any other
action on this uh this evening. We'll
[1:27:32] table it until the September regular
board meeting and I I believe our
[1:27:37] attorneys will be in touch with each
other in the the meantime.
[1:27:43] Um, is is there any other statement
though that any of the representatives
[1:27:48] here tonight would want to make before
we leave this topic?
[1:27:53] » I just want to say thank you for your
time. We appreciate it.
[1:27:56] » Thank you all for coming in. We we
appreciate that.
[1:28:01] Okay,
now we will get to item seven. We have
[1:28:05] uh staff here from Two Rivers Regional
Council who are here to present on um
[1:28:15] items that they might be able to help
the county with. Um I do have some
[1:28:20] materials here that were left with me
before if
[1:28:26] » Yeah, I brought some extra work.
>> We got extra food for you. We have
[1:28:29] duplicates here.
>> I think we inundated you with stuff. We
[1:28:32] got a couple trees that have been down
already. So you guys can go to your
[1:28:36] friends. How you doing, sir?
>> Really good.
[1:28:39] » Would you then introduce yourselves?
Certainly. Use the mic if you would and
[1:28:43] and proceed.
>> Yep. My name is Chad Frederick. I am the
[1:28:47] uh community development well community
and economic development director at Two
[1:28:50] Rivers Regional Council.
>> My name is Drew Van Heck. I am the
[1:28:53] community action director at Two Rivers.
And so earlier this year, just to give
[1:28:59] the real basic uh nuts and bolts of
this, earlier this year, we realized, it
[1:29:02] became blatantly obvious while doing Two
Rivers uh board meeting that we needed
[1:29:08] to get out, get to each of the four
counties and kind of give a basic
[1:29:12] overview of what we can do, what we do
do, what what what is even possible.
[1:29:17] because honestly we kind of figured out
after talking to the different people on
[1:29:21] the board that a lot of things are just
not known by the counties as to what
[1:29:25] True Rivers can do for you. And so we
kind of went ahead and did like a one
[1:29:29] page uh for the community development
for me, one page for community action
[1:29:33] for uh Drew and then kind of did a uh by
the numbers for each county. And so I'll
[1:29:38] just do a real basic synopsis of what
you know the kind of the five points of
[1:29:42] what what uh community development can
do for you for the county. We can bring
[1:29:46] funding into the region, support housing
stability, connect residents to jobs and
[1:29:50] training. They going strengthen uh local
e economies, and we help turn local
[1:29:54] ideas into real results. That last one
is probably the one thing that I feel
[1:30:00] that has not been there. Um and it's not
your fault. It's probably my fault. it
[1:30:06] or or at least um kind of falls on Two
Rivers uh probably even before I I took
[1:30:12] the position is that we needed to focus
on community and economic development.
[1:30:16] Now, we we used to have a SS for those
of you who are not um sure what that is.
[1:30:20] It's a community economic development
strategy. Um you'll you'll probably go
[1:30:24] out there and find that for many
different um economic development
[1:30:28] districts, many different groups, some
counties. We had one and then that fell
[1:30:33] along the wayside before I came into the
uh role and then we have been struggling
[1:30:39] to get that done again. We are David
Camp House uh who works with me. We are
[1:30:43] working on getting the u funding through
the economic development administration
[1:30:47] to be able to complete this task. Now
the task is a little bit big but it's
[1:30:54] not not even remotely something that we
can't tackle. Um but we do ask for help
[1:30:59] from you guys. So the one thing that
ends up happening is that we will reach
[1:31:02] out to uh anybody and anybody can reach
out to us in Pi County to kind of give
[1:31:07] us your for lack of a better way of
saying it your 1 to 10 of what's the
[1:31:12] most important thing what what you need
funding for what are your you know the
[1:31:16] the dream list in some ways or the
absolute need list uh for for community
[1:31:21] and economic development for the county.
So then what I can do is then I take
[1:31:24] those and those go into that economic
development strategy that and then once
[1:31:29] we get the funding from the EDA from
economic development administration
[1:31:33] those projects are automatically
fathered grandfathered into what the EDA
[1:31:37] looks at. So if it's in the SDS then
it's way more likely to get funded. So,
[1:31:43] that's one of the things that I'm going
to be working on and David and I will be
[1:31:46] working on over the next six to nine
months hopefully getting that done
[1:31:50] because that's one nice offshoot of
funding that we do have. Now, there's
[1:31:54] obviously other entities. There's DCO,
there's IDA, there's USDA, there's lots
[1:31:59] of different places that I can go. So,
the one thing that I told the other
[1:32:03] counties and that I'll tell you guys,
the main thing is is that if you have an
[1:32:07] idea, you have something that needs to
be looked at. Whether or not you have
[1:32:11] any idea whether there's any funding out
there or not, let me do that. Give me
[1:32:15] the idea. Email it to me. Um, I left
lots of cards here. Um, Derek has my
[1:32:20] information as well. Just give me a
quick heads up of a basic narrative of
[1:32:25] what you're thinking about or what Pike
County needs and I will do the homework.
[1:32:29] I will do the the leg work to go find
out what grants are out there, whether
[1:32:33] or not they're going to fit, whether or
not we are, you know, and and we as in
[1:32:37] Pike County and Two Rivers are a good
fit for it. Um cuz sometimes they need
[1:32:41] matching money, sometimes they don't.
Sometimes it's it's it would be the
[1:32:45] project wouldn't have enough readiness
to be able to be this round, but maybe
[1:32:48] it would be something that could be
looked at next round. So then that would
[1:32:50] give us some time to be able to kind of
get our ducks in a row first. Um, I've
[1:32:55] been able to find out, you know, I I was
there's money available for the
[1:32:59] coroner's office in Adams County that
they never dreamt would be available.
[1:33:02] There's money everywhere. You just got
to find it. Um, and so that's kind of
[1:33:06] where I become that liaison, that
bridge, is that if there's something
[1:33:11] that Pike County needs, let's talk about
it and figure out where I can find a
[1:33:15] stream of of grant money um to help. Uh
it we have a kind of on the on the page
[1:33:23] here there's a little bit of a breakdown
obviously of what community and economic
[1:33:26] development is without going into great
detail here. We we do offer housing
[1:33:29] support in certain situations. Workforce
development is a big one. Uh David does
[1:33:33] that um and he's great at it. We we have
a large portion of of what we um have
[1:33:39] going on in this in this county is
workforce development. And then uh even
[1:33:43] bigger is obviously Drew which he'll be
talking to you in a little bit about
[1:33:46] that second page. Now, let's just jump
to the third page, the Pike County by
[1:33:49] the numbers, because I think this is is
telling, and it's not a negative or
[1:33:54] positive telling. I think it's just
really important to see where your, you
[1:33:57] know, your money goes. Um, there's a
couple of big points I want to go with
[1:34:01] here. You can see a community
development. There's the breakdown of
[1:34:04] where SNAP is, TANF, WEOA, which is the
workforce development. And then with
[1:34:08] when you go down in the Drews Drews
area, you can see some bigger money
[1:34:11] obviously on the different things
whether it be the rehab projects or
[1:34:14] whether it be lie heap uh food pantry
all those things are kind of outlined
[1:34:18] there. Now that's fiscal year. So that's
literally July to July. That was one
[1:34:22] year right here. And the main thing to
look at there is that the do the dues
[1:34:25] even though 10,524 in some ways looks
like it's a lot some ways it looks like
[1:34:29] it's not a lot. The main thing is is you
got 3/4 of a million almost coming back
[1:34:32] in to the community. The one thing I
really want to focus on there is is that
[1:34:37] I think that's just the tip of the
iceberg. I mean, that's coming into the
[1:34:41] community and we're doing we've done
almost no community development as far
[1:34:45] as economic development goes, as far as
projects that could be helping your
[1:34:48] public infrastructure, helping
buildings, helping whatever cases,
[1:34:52] whatever you might be needing help with,
fire departments. I mean, it it's a huge
[1:34:56] gamut like we can run and that money can
be coming in too. Not even we are we we
[1:35:02] have so much more that we can do. Um and
and I think that that would be where we
[1:35:08] want to take the next step is we want to
have kind of that get the comprehensive
[1:35:12] economic development strategy set. Let's
get something on paper as to what are
[1:35:17] all the projects that Pike County is
number one really needing would like to
[1:35:21] see happen all the way down to things
that you know hey it's a it's a pipe
[1:35:26] dream maybe but maybe it's not. all
those things. We get that listed, we
[1:35:30] make that list, we get it into that
compreh comprehensive economic
[1:35:33] development strategy and then we number
one obviously have a list of things that
[1:35:36] we can go looking for funding sources
for. But number two, we get those into
[1:35:41] what the economic development
administration has and then they would
[1:35:44] see, okay, well, Pike County is wanting
to apply for this money from the EDA.
[1:35:48] Oh, let's look. Okay, it's right here.
It's number two on their priority list.
[1:35:52] So, that's something that we probably
should fund. And so that that that's
[1:35:55] that's how they look at it, which that's
how we're going to look at it and get it
[1:36:01] hopefully ironed out. That my hope and
goal based upon after talking to EDA and
[1:36:05] talking to kind of getting it done is
that we would by by this time next year
[1:36:08] we have that said fully operational.
It's fully ready to go and everything is
[1:36:11] good. Um the good news is is that while
we're getting that ready, nothing is bad
[1:36:16] that that we talk and get a list of
things going because that's only going
[1:36:19] to help us find maybe money from other
entities to be able to help you guys
[1:36:22] too.
So, that's pretty much my side. Um, like
[1:36:27] I said, we have cards here. I have my
cards here. Anything that you come up
[1:36:31] with tomorrow, week later, whatever the
case may be, just email me and say,
[1:36:35] "Hey, I heard you talk the other night.
What would this be like? How would this
[1:36:39] be a possible project?" Because I'll
I'll be able to find out pretty easily.
[1:36:43] And I have pretty good go-to people at
every one of the organizations and slash
[1:36:47] entities that I we do funding with. So I
can usually get a good read as to
[1:36:51] whether a project is a good fit and if
it's not a good fit, what things are not
[1:36:55] a good fit and then we can kind of try
to figure out if we can circumn that and
[1:36:58] and and find a fix. So I'll pass it over
to Drew. All right. Thank you, sir.
[1:37:04] Yeah. For community action programs,
they're already established per se.
[1:37:07] There is a grant process, but it's not
like we're looking for new grants. We're
[1:37:11] trying to add on to them. They're
programs that are already established.
[1:37:14] Um, so I'm here just to kind of give an
overview of those programs. If anybody
[1:37:17] has any questions when I'm done, let me
know. And like Chad mentioned, we have
[1:37:20] our cards here, too, for you guys. For
weatherization, we're essentially just
[1:37:23] trying to make the homes more energy
efficient.
[1:37:27] Um, for people to be eligible, there's
numerous ways, but the biggest priority
[1:37:31] for a person to be eligible is based on
their income.
[1:37:34] Um, and ways we can make the homes more
energy efficient is through HVAC
[1:37:38] upgrades, insulation, and other measures
we can do to make the homes more energy
[1:37:42] efficient. uh for CSBG, the community
service block grant. We, as most you
[1:37:48] probably know in this room, we have a
food pantry here in the Reach Out thrift
[1:37:51] store. So, those are a few of the things
that we can offer, you know, and not
[1:37:55] just here in this county, other
counties, too. Um but potentially we can
[1:37:58] help out with vehicle repairs, rental
assistance, school supplies, and
[1:38:02] scholarships.
The crew had an amazing
[1:38:08] um
uh school supply handout recently where
[1:38:13] they're giving out to those who are less
you know un unfortunate and able to help
[1:38:17] out you know families in need with some
school supplies that help out where
[1:38:22] where we could with two river to those
families and lie is basically to sum it
[1:38:27] up is utility assistance for those who
are income eligible for that too. So,
[1:38:32] like I said, mine are more established.
You know, not we're not searching for
[1:38:36] new grains for our programs, but if
anybody has any questions on what we
[1:38:39] currently offer. Um, more than willing
to take those questions now or you can
[1:38:42] reach out to us anytime.
I did have one other thing I would have
[1:38:47] mentioned too. Um, I kind of forgot
because it wasn't on the hand. Uh, long
[1:38:51] story short, we do have a revolving loan
fund program that's a little different
[1:38:56] than a lot of the ones that you'll run
into. we were deferralized, so we
[1:38:59] actually were able to go through the
process of getting it defederalized to
[1:39:02] where we are fully in charge of it. So
the EDA doesn't run it anymore, so we
[1:39:07] can have much better competitive rates.
Um, we beat the bank rates often. We and
[1:39:13] and it's been beneficial thus far. We do
not have anybody from Pike County.
[1:39:17] That's why I definitely want to mention
it because we're trying to at least
[1:39:20] diversify that whole 4ount thing. And if
there are any businesses in Pike County,
[1:39:24] in Pittsfield or wherever that is are
are looking to do something, whether it
[1:39:30] just fix the place, grow, do something,
or even even a startup, please have them
[1:39:36] get a hold of me. Again, email me. Um,
then we go through the basic process of
[1:39:40] an application for the revolving
revolving loan fund. Um, it's we it's a
[1:39:45] max of 250,000. We we're usually looking
for in the 50 to 75 range just because
[1:39:50] that way we can keep the amount that we
have and get as many businesses helped
[1:39:54] as we can, but we definitely would love
to see somebody a business from Pike
[1:39:57] County. That way we can help help this
county as well. So if that if that is
[1:40:00] anything, if you know any of anyone know
of any business owners that are looking
[1:40:04] to do something, uh please have them get
a hold of us because even though it is a
[1:40:07] loan, obviously not a grant, it's it we
can keep it pretty competitive.
[1:40:14] Does anyone have any questions? Or if
you don't, then you can always, like I
[1:40:18] said, please, please reach out to us
anytime that you want to.
[1:40:22] » Chad, the only thing I would bring up is
uh and we've talked about this over the
[1:40:26] last year or two, um is our situation
with our audits and the [clears throat]
[1:40:30] do not pay list,
>> right?
[1:40:32] » And so
>> there will be times that you'll run into
[1:40:35] a problem with that. There will be I do
know for a fact though that there had
[1:40:38] there I talked to a couple of people. I
talked to one person at DCO and I talked
[1:40:41] to one person at USDA and sometimes
those can that can be circumnavigated
[1:40:44] depending on what the situation is
because if you're going through TRC and
[1:40:47] we are actually going to administer it
sometimes that helps not always but
[1:40:53] because there have been certain
situations where even if we're the one
[1:40:55] even if we're the administrating agent
they still say no because of the do
[1:40:59] because of that. Now I have talked to um
IDA is the same thing. So I don't mean
[1:41:02] that doesn't really help a lot because
IDA doesn't necessarily have projects
[1:41:05] that we're we're talking about for this.
But I do know that USDA when I talked to
[1:41:09] them they said that if we were the
administrating agent then they would
[1:41:12] probably wave that in most projects
unless we're talking like you know
[1:41:16] multi-million dollar projects.
>> Okay.
[1:41:18] » So I know it can be battled. I it could
end up being a headache. It could not
[1:41:23] be. That's again another thing why I
think if give me everything you got and
[1:41:26] I'll see what I can find.
So, so your best suggestion would be try
[1:41:31] and get our department heads together
and say, "What is it that you do for
[1:41:34] your department?"
>> I mean, it's honestly that's about the
[1:41:37] best thing to do. Um, Brown County did a
decent job of doing it that way for me.
[1:41:41] Uh, that's Derek, you just pretty much
hit the nail on the head of how they did
[1:41:44] it. They basically just said, "Highway
department, tell them what you need."
[1:41:47] You know, everybody tell everybody what
they need, make a list, and send it and
[1:41:50] they send it to me. Well, I I know a big
project we've always talked about is
[1:41:54] trying to get everything electronic
>> and [clears throat] we've got so much
[1:41:58] paper and everything that needs to be
scanned and I think all the offices have
[1:42:01] that problem where if there's a way to
consolidate to where we maybe do one
[1:42:06] grant that they come in and just do each
office at a time thing,
[1:42:11] » but that's up of course to the elected
official on how they want to do it. that
[1:42:16] I
>> this is what I've been trying to do is
[1:42:18] try and find other outside sources that
may be able to accomplish what we need
[1:42:22] done here, [clears throat]
>> but we don't have to fund it.
[1:42:25] » Right. Exactly.
>> That's what I figure that we're getting
[1:42:27] with our $10,000 a year for
[clears throat] what we pay to be part
[1:42:30] of.
>> Exactly. I mean, if and it it seems it
[1:42:34] sounds simplistic. I know it's not, but
like it really is as simple as you just
[1:42:37] give me your laundry list and then let
me do my work to seeing what I can find.
[1:42:41] » I've had some good luck. I've had not
some good luck. just depends um on the
[1:42:45] project itself, but usually there's
something out there somewhere.
[1:42:51] [snorts]
[1:42:54] » Well, if there's nothing else, thank you
for your time. I really appreciate it.
[1:42:56] » Thank you, everyone. Mr. Barlin,
>> yes, sir.
[1:43:01] » Thank you both for coming down. I'm
sorry about your wait. We appreciate
[1:43:05] that.
>> No problem. You guys have a great night,
[1:43:07] too.
Thanks.
[1:43:10] » Yeah, I can be gone.
There you go.
[1:43:17] » All right.
Here we got
[1:43:20] » hard for somebody back here.
>> Yeah,
[1:43:24] » we did uh item eight previously, so
we're back to item nine, committee
[1:43:29] reports. Derek, finance.
[1:43:34] » Thank you, Madam Chair.
The
[1:43:40] Pike County Finance Committee was called
to order at 6 PM on August 18th, 2026.
[1:43:44] At the Pike County Government Building,
committee members Derek Ross, Don
[1:43:48] Foster, Lance Kendrick were present.
Rita Hoskins, Katherine Rafferty, uh
[1:43:52] Mike Burbridge, Scott Circle, Walker
Filbert, Judge McCartney, and others
[1:43:56] were also present. Under public
comments, Mike Burbridge raised public
[1:43:59] concerns regarding broad budget line
items and whether expenses such as
[1:44:04] travel should be uh paid from general
categories such as supplies. The status
[1:44:10] of the county's financial policies and
procedures uh were also questioned. Uh
[1:44:14] also under public comments was the
committee discussed prior efforts to
[1:44:18] separate election personnel raises,
bonuses, mileage, and other expenses
[1:44:21] into more specific lines. Ma members
stated that uh greater detail would
[1:44:26] improve public accountability while also
recognizing that departments need
[1:44:30] reasonable flexibility and should not be
micromanaged over those small line item
[1:44:34] variances. Under an unemployment claim,
uh unemployment claim involving a
[1:44:39] probation employee resulted in an award
approximately of $10,314.
[1:44:44] The committee discussed earlier efforts
to contest the claim, an administrative
[1:44:48] hearing for which county representatives
stated they were unavailable but did not
[1:44:52] receive the expected call and later
correspondents uh indicating that the
[1:44:56] county had not participated in the
hearing. The county previously carried a
[1:45:00] separate unemployment insurance uh
policy costing roughly $25,000 a year.
[1:45:05] After reviewing roughly three years of
experience showing approximately 75,000
[1:45:10] in premiums compared to only a small
amount of claims, the county
[1:45:14] discontinued the policy and instead
budget approximately 25,000 in the tor
[1:45:18] immunity fund for the unemployment
expenses. Lance Kendrick made a motion,
[1:45:22] Don Foster seconded, to pay the $10,314
unemployment claim from the unemployment
[1:45:28] line in the torn immunity fund while uh
additional review uh was proceed or
[1:45:33] pursued. The motion passed. Court public
defender and courthouse funding. The
[1:45:38] committee was advised that approximately
97,000 of the public defender grant
[1:45:42] funding was expected near the end of
August. It was stated that this may be
[1:45:46] the final grant of that type as the
state moves toward a statewide public
[1:45:50] defender office. Court related expenses
including code hearings and certain
[1:45:55] courthouse needs may be uh may continue
to be supported through the available
[1:46:00] court funds and grants when eligible.
Preliminary work has begun to evaluate
[1:46:05] possible courthouse energy efficiency
improvements, including heating,
[1:46:08] cooling, windows, and related capital
needs. Cost estimates and grant
[1:46:12] opportunities are being explored before
any project is presented for approval.
[1:46:17] The committee also discussed the code
hearing costs. The judge indicated that
[1:46:20] the court funds would continue to cover
those costs when available because code
[1:46:25] enforcement prevents some matters from
entering the regular court system. Under
[1:46:30] the 252627
budget discussion, the committee stated
[1:46:33] that the county was uh short for the
2025 fiscal year and that the final
[1:46:38] amount will ultimately be confirmed
through an audit. Current fiscal year
[1:46:42] 2026 analysis was limited because of uh
complete July payroll information had
[1:46:47] not yet been entered into CIC. The
committee stated that the payroll is the
[1:46:51] county's largest expense and that the
reports without current payroll
[1:46:55] information are limited value for
monitoring spending and preparing the
[1:46:59] next budget. In discussing the fiscal
year 2026 budget, it was noted that the
[1:47:03] adopted budget included approximately
900,000 in CDs and other one-time cash
[1:47:10] resources along with money budgeted for
audit expenses. Those resources helped
[1:47:14] for the fiscal year 2026 budget appear
roughly balanced on a cash basis, but
[1:47:19] the committee distinguished that one
line one-time sources for recurring
[1:47:23] operating revenue. Initial fiscal year
2027 departmental requests resulted in
[1:47:29] an estimated general fund deficit of
approximately $572,426.
[1:47:35] The committee emphasized that the
figures represented departmental
[1:47:38] requests or wish lists, not final
approval appropriate, not final approved
[1:47:43] appropriations. Personnel and benefits
were identified as the largest general
[1:47:47] fund expenses as an area that could not
be avoided when considering reductions
[1:47:52] of the size. Board members were expected
to receive a working budget spreadsheet
[1:47:56] that allows each member to enter
proposed reductions and see the def
[1:48:00] effect of the deficit. Mileage
reimbursement was discussed as one
[1:48:04] possible area of savings. No decision
was made to eliminate mileage. Required
[1:48:08] travel mandated tra training,
contractual obligations, employee
[1:48:12] duties, and departmental needs were
discussed as factors that may be
[1:48:15] distinguished from discretionary travel.
Grant funded expenditures were also
[1:48:19] discussed. The committee expressed a
preference for adding grant revenue and
[1:48:23] corresponding expenses through budget
amendments when grants are actually
[1:48:27] awarded rather than including uncertain
grant-f funed expenses in the original
[1:48:31] budgets. This was discussed as a way to
avoid overstating departmental spending
[1:48:36] needs when a future grant may cover the
cost. County chairman stated that the
[1:48:40] full board would first receive the
budget worksheet, provide feedback
[1:48:44] rather than immediately scheduling
numerous scheduled budget meetings. It
[1:48:47] was noticed that or noted that prior
budget work sessions had shifted between
[1:48:52] small groups and full board meetings
without producing sufficient alternative
[1:48:56] proposals while each additional meeting
creates mileage and predium cost.
[1:49:01] Department heads who want to discuss a
request may still meet with the board
[1:49:05] members but the committee stated that
the principal decisions regarding
[1:49:08] reductions must ultimately be made by
the county board rather than negotiated
[1:49:13] only by the finance committee. The
committee also discussed whether
[1:49:17] departments should submit only expenses
they reasonably expect the county to
[1:49:21] fund rather than including items that
may later be covered by grants. Members
[1:49:26] noted that uh appropriating an expense
gives the department authority to spend
[1:49:30] the money even if the anticipated grant
does not materialize making conservative
[1:49:35] budgeting important when cash reserves
are limited.
[1:49:41] CIC pay common payroll reporting. A
lengthy and at times contentious uh
[1:49:45] discussion occurred regarding the
responsibility for entering payroll
[1:49:48] information into CIC and the continued
absence of complete July payroll
[1:49:52] information from the county's financial
reports. Committee members stated that
[1:49:56] the lack of current payroll data was
impairing their ability to monitor the
[1:50:00] fiscal year 2026 expenditures develop
the 2027 budget. It was also noted that
[1:50:05] earlier communications had indicated
that on July 5th and July 10th payrolls
[1:50:10] would be entered backtoback but the July
information was not available in CIC
[1:50:15] when month reports were being reviewed.
Committee members uh emphasized that the
[1:50:19] board needs payroll information in a
usable financial format tied to
[1:50:23] appropriations and line items. The
committee requested whether the county
[1:50:27] clerk was statutory uh has a statutory
responsibility to maintain appropriate
[1:50:31] level of counting records and cited
55LCS
[1:50:35] 5/6-10006
[1:50:38] during the discussion. The state's
attorney stated that he had previously
[1:50:43] provided written guidance regarding the
respective responsibilities of the
[1:50:46] county clerk and treasurer and proposed
meetings including the use of neutral
[1:50:50] participant of a neutral participant to
resolve the paycom CIC issue. He also
[1:50:55] stated that he had recommended bringing
the offices together with auditors
[1:50:58] financial consultants to settle the
process. No final resolution was reached
[1:51:03] during regarding uh responsibility for
the payroll entries. The possibility of
[1:51:07] replacing CIC was discussed, but uh
concern was expressed about another
[1:51:11] major software change while the county
remains behind the prior year audits and
[1:51:15] still reconciling existing systems.
Committee members responded that the
[1:51:20] issue was not whether payroll totals
were accurate, but whether the board
[1:51:24] could obtain current expense information
mapped to the appropriations and line
[1:51:28] items it is legally responsible for
adopting and monitoring. The committee
[1:51:32] stated that without that mapping, it
could not reliably project departmental
[1:51:36] spending or compare actual payroll costs
with the budget. Uh county clerk budget
[1:51:40] amendment, the fiscal year 2026
amendment was discussed to move $89,223
[1:51:46] from the county clerk's election line to
the personnel line. The amendment would
[1:51:51] reduce the election salary expense line
and increase the office personnel line
[1:51:56] while leaving the county clerk's total
appropriation unchanged at $400,530.
[1:52:02] Under insurance, the committee reviewed
information concerning the dental
[1:52:06] insurance renewal. Dental rates
increased slightly while vision coverage
[1:52:09] remained unchanged. The county currently
contributes a flat $25 per month toward
[1:52:14] applicable employee coverage in addition
to life insurance cost. The Hope Trust
[1:52:18] renewal information was expected later
with open enrollment generally occurring
[1:52:22] in the fall. Different Hope Trust plan
options that would potentially reduce
[1:52:27] costs were discussed and it was noted
that those alternatives could be
[1:52:30] reviewed without necessarily changing
the county's insurance provider treasur
[1:52:35] and revenue. The general fund balance
was reported at approximately $263,327.
[1:52:42] approximately 685,000 remained
outstanding on the general fund
[1:52:46] anticipation note and retirement IRF
borrowing was approximately 130,000. The
[1:52:51] first property tax distribution is
expected in early September with much of
[1:52:56] it to be used to repay the anticipation
borrowing. The committee was advised of
[1:53:01] reports that use tax revenue may
decline.
[1:53:06] The committee was advised of reports
that use tax revenue may decline
[1:53:09] substantially. Possible reductions in
replacement tax revenue were also
[1:53:13] discussed as uh potential issues
affecting the fiscal year 2027. The
[1:53:18] treasur indicated additional state
information would be reviewed and
[1:53:22] provided for budgeting. County fee
levels were discussed, including whether
[1:53:26] certain fees uh that have remained
unchanged for many years should be
[1:53:29] reviewed. The committee discussed the
possibility of an internal fee studies
[1:53:33] were permitted and whether outside
consultants are necessary for that
[1:53:37] particular offices or for particular
offices. The committee discussed
[1:53:41] sheriff, circuit clerk, and other
feebased revenues as inherently
[1:53:44] difficult to predict because collections
depend on enforcement activity, cases,
[1:53:49] contracts, and other factors outside the
county's control. members stated that
[1:53:53] recurring expenditures should not be
supported by optimistic revenue
[1:53:56] assumptions that may not occur under old
and new business. The first property tax
[1:54:01] distributions were uh expected during
the first half of September. The
[1:54:06] committee discussed the timing of the
distributions to the county and other
[1:54:09] taxing bodies as well as repayment of
anticipation borrowing. Additional
[1:54:13] discussion occurred regarding required
employee and elected official travel
[1:54:17] training expenses, department budgets,
and the need to distinguish essential
[1:54:22] expenses from discretionary expenses as
the fiscal year 2027 budget is
[1:54:27] developed. Near the end of the meeting,
the earlier mileage discussion was
[1:54:31] revisited. County officials noted that
some conferences training are required
[1:54:35] by statute, the courts, and employment
duties. The committee clarified that no
[1:54:40] blanket elimination had been adopted and
that required travel must be considered
[1:54:44] differently for discretionary travel
from discretionary travel. The health
[1:54:49] department also asked whether mileage
for nurses traveling between patients
[1:54:52] was part of the discussion. It was
clarified that the health department
[1:54:56] budget is governed by its own board and
the mileage required as part of that
[1:55:00] employees worker employment arrangement
would be uh treated in accordance with
[1:55:04] those obligations. The broader budget
point was that the county may have to
[1:55:08] establish lower total appropriations for
departments and allow department heads
[1:55:13] to determine how best to use those
limited funds rather than assuming every
[1:55:18] historical expense can continue at the
same level. Under review and approval of
[1:55:23] monthly bills, Don Foster made a motion
was seconded by Lance Kendrick to
[1:55:26] approve and pay bills in the amount of
89,6826.
[1:55:30] The motion passed by voice vote uh
German. Lance Kendrick made a motion. It
[1:55:35] was seconded by Don Foster to adjourn.
The motion passed and the meeting
[1:55:38] adjourned at 7:42 p.m.
[1:55:43] » Do I have a motion to approve the
finance minutes?
[1:55:48] » Derek second,
Tom. Any discussion?
[1:55:54] All in favor? I
>> Hold on.
[1:55:56] » Oh, sorry, Jim.
>> Sorry, was still moving. I have
[1:55:58] questions. Um, starting off with one you
may not have the answer to. The judge
[1:56:02] alludes that probation or excuse me
probation that public defender will be
[1:56:06] rolled into a state office. Were there
any details on that? I mean are they
[1:56:10] going to become state employees? And you
may and you may not know honestly but it
[1:56:14] was I found it intriguing.
>> Um I I don't know. And one of the more
[1:56:19] concerning points is I talked to Kelly
Murray from the county board association
[1:56:23] and they're they're having a meeting on
September I think 10th or 11th to where
[1:56:28] there are some counties that are under
30,000 population that may not get the
[1:56:33] funding from the state for the um public
defender. So uh I've got to look into
[1:56:39] that too and make sure we're going to
get the money from the state. But my
[1:56:42] understanding is the public defenders
pay has been increased to 80 or 90% some
[1:56:48] something along the lines of the state
attorney.
[1:56:50] » Yeah, it's got to be what 80% of the
state's attorney salary I think now.
[1:56:54] » And then the state is supposed to be
reimbursing
[1:56:57] part of that too, but I'm hearing that
initially the state might may not have
[1:57:02] the funds to reimburse uh counties under
30,000. So I'm going to attend that
[1:57:07] meeting and find out what's more
involved. Got some.
[1:57:11] » Oh, okay.
[1:57:15] [clears throat]
[1:57:20] » I don't want to speak for Mr. Zimmerman
because he does a great job speaking for
[1:57:24] himself, but he he's going to meet with
uh the board uh because he has it
[1:57:30] figured out and he's talked to the judge
on on how um what needs to happen is
[1:57:36] that his position needs to become a
full-time position and uh that is going
[1:57:44] that's there's going to be no issue on
the funding. What Mr. Ross is referring
[1:57:48] to. There are all kinds of small
counties out there who have no uh public
[1:57:54] defender position and they contract with
private attorneys for doing that work
[1:58:00] and uh that's problematic uh in the way
this formulation is going to fit. But uh
[1:58:07] Mr. Zimmerman's going to talk to you
about that because just need to formally
[1:58:12] make it a full-time and then he is going
to show you how with the transition it's
[1:58:17] actually going to save the county money
based upon what is being spent on that
[1:58:22] function now. So that'll be forthcoming.
>> Great. Thank you.
[1:58:27] » Um other minor thing I know you
discussed per personal property
[1:58:31] replacement tax at the meeting. I had
got an email, I assumed everybody got it
[1:58:35] on the 13th of August stating that uh
IDR is going to increase the amount of
[1:58:40] personal property replacement tax to
counties by 21.2% for next year or for
[1:58:46] this fiscal year, excuse me. So, it
should be available on their website
[1:58:50] shortly. I I got on my phone and I
didn't go in and look at it. Um, my
[1:58:56] third question,
the budget process.
[1:59:01] I I I got to make sure I'm understanding
things. You're going to send out a
[1:59:05] worksheet. I'm going to be able to
look at different scenarios
[1:59:12] within that sheet.
Now, I'm assuming it's it's a
[1:59:18] I guess my question is how do I stay in
OMA compliance if I say I want to cut a
[1:59:24] deputy and see what that does and make
and make that proposal
[1:59:29] if we're not if we're not meeting. How
do I how do I stay compliant and not
[1:59:34] have somebody
blow blow me up for for throwing this
[1:59:38] out there?
>> Um
[1:59:41] » well, I think one Oh, oops.
Well, what what I was going to say is
[1:59:45] that I have basically made the 2027
budget uh spreadsheet the same as I did
[1:59:50] 2026.
And what I've done is I put in what uh
[1:59:55] CIC downloaded for 2025 as 2025s. I put
in our 2026 uh budgeted amount. I have
[2:00:03] the estimated or year-to-ate numbers
under the estimated 2026. And then what
[2:00:09] I did is I did a column called 2027 and
I put in what all of the departments are
[2:00:14] asking for.
>> And then what I've done is I've made
[2:00:17] another column that I'm calling board
numbers. And that is where I'm going to
[2:00:21] allow or basically everybody's going to
have their own spreadsheet. All board
[2:00:25] members have their own spreadsheet. And
if they just want to copy paste over
[2:00:29] what the departments asked for, then
you'll see that it ends up being the
[2:00:33] same deficit. But if you go in and say,
"Well, I want to move um deputies A from
[2:00:39] 500,000 to 400,000. What does that look
like in your column and what can you
[2:00:44] start changing in all your different
departments? Well, I think I could lower
[2:00:48] this. I think I could lower that." And
then go back up to look at where the
[2:00:52] deficit's at. So, the idea was I'm
hoping that board members can play
[2:00:56] around with here's what the departments
are asking for. each individual
[2:01:00] department or each individual board
member could say, "Well, what if we
[2:01:02] tweak it to this or that, they'll come
up with a number and then ideally
[2:01:06] somebody's going to come up with
hopefully a balanced budget that says,
[2:01:10] "Hey, here's what we came up with." But
instead of having one board member do it
[2:01:14] all, I wanted to have all board members
input to look at it and say, "Here's
[2:01:18] what departments are asking for. I think
I could trim it here, here, and here.
[2:01:22] Only give them this amount. And if I do
that here, here, and here, then my
[2:01:27] deficit doesn't look like 500,000.
Hopefully, it's closer to 50,000. So,
[2:01:31] that was the idea was to give you all
the spreadsheets once I get uh the
[2:01:35] sheriff was still tweaking his numbers a
little bit um because of what we just
[2:01:39] did here for the uh union get raise. But
once I had those numbers, then everyone
[2:01:44] would have the spreadsheet. They could
start playing around with it. We'll see
[2:01:49] how it works. I mean, we still have
>> And you think as long as it's between
[2:01:54] like if you sent Jim the spreadsheet
like you and I have been doing, as long
[2:02:00] as it's just between two of you, we're
okay with the open meetings at.
[2:02:05] » Well, no. I'm I'm not sharing the
spreadsheet. I'm just going to give
[2:02:10] everyone the spreadsheet and then they
can put in their own information and
[2:02:14] then when we finally do get together to
discuss things, they'll have had some
[2:02:18] time. And that's my and that's my qu my
core question. When do I dis when do if
[2:02:23] I had to a proposal when do I
disseminate it to the rest of the board
[2:02:26] and stay in compliance and provide some
transparency to the public,
[2:02:29] » right? Um
>> I I think it's probably just going to
[2:02:34] have to be an email uh to just send an
email to myself or Rita, I would
[2:02:38] suppose, and then hey, Jim's come up
with this. Why don't we set up a
[2:02:42] meeting? Um because ideally, and I think
that's what Rita had suggested, we want
[2:02:47] to make sure that our budget meetings
are productive. So if we've had the time
[2:02:51] to look at stuff, we can see what the
departments were asking for. By the time
[2:02:54] we actually have that first budget
meeting, if we've got two or three board
[2:02:59] members that say, "Hey, I came up with
numbers. I came up with numbers." Then
[2:03:02] when we all get together, we should be
able to look at those numbers and then
[2:03:06] say what one looks the best.
>> Yeah. I I mean I think I can if I've got
[2:03:10] numbers I can send them to Rita and Rita
can relay them to you and we're good,
[2:03:14] right?
>> Yeah.
[2:03:15] » Okay.
>> Yeah, that that that's like an all
[2:03:18] reply.
>> Yeah. As long as I don't hit reply all
[2:03:20] with an emoji or something,
>> right? And that's why I I'm I'm not
[2:03:23] doing a shared um spreadsheet right now,
nor am I sending it to I mean each
[2:03:29] individual is going to have their own
spreadsheet. They'll put their own
[2:03:32] numbers in and then we'll just all get
together here and figure out what we can
[2:03:36] come up with.
>> Yeah. And we can see about the timing,
[2:03:39] too. I um
if Derek, you know, is able to get this
[2:03:44] out soon and and I would prefer he got
things corrected with the sheriff's
[2:03:50] department because it came out at
finance that it appeared we were uh
[2:03:57] double counting some revenue
uh when we were talking when Scott was
[2:04:01] giving his treasures report and pointed
out a couple things. So, I would like to
[2:04:06] get that issue resolved before um people
start uh adjusting things.
[2:04:12] But if so, once we get that out and you
guys have a chance to look at it and
[2:04:19] have some ideas, I'm fine if we do need
to call a special meeting. I think the
[2:04:25] mistake last year was someone suggested
to me we need to get a small group
[2:04:30] together and have a series of meetings
and then someone said that wasn't
[2:04:34] working. We need to get the full board
together and have a series of meetings
[2:04:38] and we just kept meeting and I don't
think it was very productive. So, I'd
[2:04:43] like I'm perfectly fine with scheduling
a special meeting, but I'd like to do it
[2:04:50] when we know we've got something to
discuss. And to the extent we can, I'd
[2:04:56] like to use the finance meeting and the
regular board meeting. Um I'm hoping
[2:05:01] that we'll we'll get to the point ma you
know in the next couple of months where
[2:05:06] we don't have uh you know some of these
major agenda items where we can just
[2:05:13] devote a good chunk of the board time to
discussing the budget because I think
[2:05:18] that's the best place where the public
will see it rather than having some
[2:05:22] special meeting in a you know an odd
time. I I would like to propose at some
[2:05:28] point that that at that that it's almost
40% of the budget that we get the
[2:05:34] sheriff and the prospective sheriff
and and go through that one line by line
[2:05:41] just because that's the that's the
elephant in the room as far as as far as
[2:05:45] general fund goes.
>> Can I address the statuto timelines just
[2:05:50] everyone?
>> Sure.
[2:06:02] Yeah, looking at the calendar, it looks
like um
[2:06:07] November 23rd, that's the Monday before
Thanksgiving
[2:06:13] is going to be our last scheduled
meeting. So uh using that date 15 days
[2:06:22] ahead of that which would be November
8th which unfortunately is a Sunday that
[2:06:28] is the drop dead day that you have to
have the uh draft or proposed budget
[2:06:35] posted for the public. So the and that
proposed budget has to be approved for
[2:06:45] posting at a public meeting. So that
means that [clears throat]
[2:06:51] just working backwards,
um,
[2:06:55] you know, sometime before November 8th,
you're going to have to have a public
[2:07:01] meeting where the final proposed budget
that's going to be posted for the public
[2:07:09] um, is finalized. Now, of course, once
it's posted, uh, the board can make any
[2:07:16] change they want to make to it before
final say on November 23rd. So, so
[2:07:24] that's kind of your drop dead day. So
technically November 6 is your drop dead
[2:07:30] day that you have to have had a public
meeting to finalize the proposed budget
[2:07:35] and it has to be posted on our website
uh no later than November 8th.
[2:07:44] So, as to this idea, which is fine if
that's the way you want to do it, of
[2:07:50] sending out a spreadsheet to the
individual members,
[2:07:55] uh they are more than allowed to send
back to whoever sent them that
[2:08:01] spreadsheet their proposed numbers. The
only thing I would caution you is that
[2:08:07] there should be no discussion included
as to how I got to that number. Uh you
[2:08:15] should only put in, you know, the number
that that you're proposing.
[2:08:20] And then once all of that is done, then
that's the time to have the meeting that
[2:08:27] Mr. Sheepard's talking about. And that
should not be the meeting necessarily
[2:08:33] where you finalize the budget
[clears throat] for posting
[2:08:37] uh because otherwise that could be a
really long meeting.
[2:08:41] So [snorts]
uh having said that, so sometime uh
[2:08:45] before November 6th, you're going to
want to have that meeting where you kind
[2:08:51] of hash through everyone's proposal and
and try to come up with something. and
[2:08:56] that then that gives you some breathing
room to put it together for the proposal
[2:09:01] that needs to be posted. So hopefully
all that makes sense
[2:09:07] and uh we'll just go from there.
[2:09:12] » Thanks, Walker.
[2:09:15] Jim, did you have more?
>> I think that'll do for now. I that that
[2:09:20] was that was my big one was just a just
a a little more clarification and that
[2:09:25] that helped.
>> All right. Thanks.
[2:09:29] And obviously if anybody has any ideas
now um just of items where you believe
[2:09:35] there's
some increased revenue to
[2:09:40] that might happen or potential savings.
Please
[2:09:45] uh get those up as well. Well, you bring
you bring that up and uh I will go with
[2:09:52] my my standard pet peeve,
the uh nurses contract and the sheriff's
[2:09:57] department. I know we can't budget for
it, but that contract exceeds the
[2:10:01] $30,000 bid minimum. And I would
publicly propose that instead of
[2:10:07] spending $9,000 a month for a guaranteed
10 hours a week of nursing contract, we
[2:10:11] put it out for bid and see what we can
do to save us some money on that
[2:10:14] $108,000 expense.
>> It hasn't it has been as high as 11.
[2:10:19] » It started out at 11 and 23 when when it
was first signed at at cost us $131,000
[2:10:25] a month a year plus supplies was usually
about 150. But that would be one
[2:10:38] Oh yeah, and the simple reminder that
the county board has jurisdiction over
[2:10:41] contracts entered into within the
county.
[2:10:54] » Thank you.
[2:10:58] Uh
okay. So we are still under discussion
[2:11:03] of the minutes. Are is there other We
have a motion on the table to approve
[2:11:08] them. Is there any other discussion
there?
[2:11:13] If not. All in favor? I
>> I.
[2:11:16] » Any oppose? Nay.
Okay. Motion carries.
[2:11:21] » Um
Derek, the
[2:11:26] county clerk's sure budget amendment. Um
so the uh for the budget for the uh
[2:11:31] county clerk's office the next one. Yes.
Okay. Yeah. Uh so this was uh discussed
[2:11:36] in finance originally in May. Uh it was
discussed again um this past uh finance
[2:11:42] meeting. Um it was supposed to be taken
care of last month but I forgot to bring
[2:11:46] the numbers. Uh again, what this is
doing uh based off of the discussion
[2:11:52] that I had with the auditors that there
are payroll expenses that are being paid
[2:11:58] out of the election line item within the
county clerk's office and we are moving
[2:12:03] those amounts into the personnel line
item of the county clerk's office out of
[2:12:08] payroll, but we are not adjusting the
overall budget amount. So the dollar
[2:12:13] amounts are still the same. It's just
more of a transparency
[2:12:17] uh situation to where we're putting the
um payroll expenses in the payroll line
[2:12:23] item. So, uh, I had a motion here, uh,
to recommend the approval of a transfer
[2:12:29] appropriation in the amount of 89,223
[2:12:34] within fund 001
008566,
[2:12:39] which is elections, salaries, and
expenses to line 0010085503,
[2:12:46] which is office personnel for the
purpose of correcting a line item
[2:12:51] classification error as identified.
through audit review and in coordination
[2:12:55] with the county clerk to properly
reflect eligible personnel expenses with
[2:13:00] no change to the appropriations of the
total appropriations of the fund. This
[2:13:06] transfer is administrative in nature and
does not change the purpose, eligibility
[2:13:10] or use of the funds but solely corrects
the classification of the expenditures.
[2:13:16] So,
I would ask for an I vote on passing
[2:13:21] that.
>> Okay. So, Derek's making a motion. Do we
[2:13:26] have a second?
Lance seconds. Any discussion?
[2:13:49] in uh looking at 55 ILCS 5/6-10003
[2:13:56] um says transfers of appropriations
affecting personnel
[2:14:03] uh may be made at any meeting of the
board by a twothirds vote. vote of all
[2:14:09] the members constituting such board.
>> Uh it shall be taken by eyes's and nazs
[2:14:16] and entered on the record.
Um so I understand it doesn't affect the
[2:14:21] bottom line, but you're transferring
appropriations
[2:14:26] that is affecting a personnel line that
was approved in the in the budget. So,
[2:14:35] uh, just reading this black letter law,
you're going to need six votes
[2:14:40] to approve it. Now, I understand the
reasonings for it, which makes all the
[2:14:44] sense in the world, but you're going to
you're going to need six votes to make
[2:14:49] that change.
>> 2/3 of the corner or two of the
[2:14:54] » two of the board.
>> 2/3 of the board. That's what the
[2:14:57] statute says.
by a twothirds vote of all the members
[2:15:03] constituting such board which would be
nine members. Twothirds is six. So
[2:15:08] you're going to need six votes and it
has to be by eyes and they so basically
[2:15:13] we'll call you know that's how I do it
just for the record.
[2:15:18] » Okay.
>> Any other discussion?
[2:15:24] Katherine, do you want to call the role?
[2:15:33] All right.
>> Hi.
[2:15:35] » Hi.
[2:15:43] » Foster.
>> Hi.
[2:15:47] » Ed Kendrick.
>> Yes.
[2:15:50] Tom
>> Lewis.
[2:15:51] » Hi.
[2:15:55] » Cross.
>> Hi. Chip
[2:15:57] » Shepard.
>> Hi.
[2:16:03] I vote. Should I vote even though it's
not needed? It says of the
[2:16:10] » You got six.
>> Yeah. All right.
[2:16:15] » So, the motion carries.
Um
[2:16:21] item two and four. Uh maybe those two
are kind of related at the moment. Is
[2:16:30] are is there more Derek there than what
was in your minutes? No. The um fiscal
[2:16:34] year 2027 cost for the dental envision.
We received the renewal uh and I'm
[2:16:40] recommending that we just go ahead and
continue doing the $25 a month that
[2:16:45] we've been doing for years so far and
that the employees pay the difference.
[2:16:50] Uh the vision didn't go up to the best
of my knowledge and the and the dental
[2:16:55] went up a little bit. Um but I don't
have those numbers. We didn't really
[2:17:00] have time to do an insurance meeting and
there wasn't really going to be any
[2:17:03] discussion of going out for bid or
anything on the dental. Um and we didn't
[2:17:08] have the 30-day notice. There's a lot of
things we didn't do. But, uh, I guess
[2:17:12] what I'm looking for is a motion to
continue the $25 a month torch dental
[2:17:19] and vision if the board's comfortable
doing that right now. But it wasn't it's
[2:17:24] not here on the agenda. I should have
put it as possible um action and I did
[2:17:29] not. So, I don't know if we can actually
make you can
[2:17:34] » but
Walker, if it's current policy, if we do
[2:17:38] nothing, it stays the same. Right.
Right. Okay.
[2:17:41] » Okay.
>> All right. Well,
[2:17:43] » and all the employees were notified of
the
[2:17:48] » So then I I would say under our current
policy, we will continue doing our $25 a
[2:17:53] month towards dental and vision coverage
for those employees that elected and
[2:17:56] they will pay whatever the difference is
and the clerk's office will work on
[2:18:01] those numbers to find out what those
[2:18:07] Okay.
All righty. Um, then the number four
[2:18:12] with the Hope Trust updates. Uh, I
actually just received those renewals
[2:18:15] this morning and I'm optimistic that
there are some alternatives in there
[2:18:22] that are quite a bit uh more out of
pocket, but the rates, surprisingly
[2:18:28] enough, are at or lower than what those
same plans were last year. So, uh, those
[2:18:33] rates held if if not actually went down.
uh we took a 13% increase on one of our
[2:18:38] plans and a 6% on the uh HSA plan. So
that was um rather um nominal uh
[2:18:47] compared to the industry out there that
uh there are some mid- teens to low 20s.
[2:18:52] So uh we we had a good year on our
renewal. I believe Mr. Booth had passed
[2:18:57] along that our uh plan is running at
about 101% based off us a pretty bad
[2:19:02] month here in July. But prior to that,
we were, I think, in the mid 80s to low
[2:19:07] 90s. So, uh the the county definitely
has had some years of claims. But this
[2:19:13] past uh year or two uh has has started
going in the right direction, and it's
[2:19:18] very helpful that we can actually see
those numbers now as they're being
[2:19:22] incurred, so we can kind of track and
see. Um so, I I had hoped that we would
[2:19:27] get a decent renewal based off of what
the claims have been, and it looks like
[2:19:31] they came through with that. So, what I
planned on doing is getting what those
[2:19:36] alternate plans are. I actually sent
that out. Uh, what the three alternate
[2:19:40] plans that were being suggested or
looked at uh to the employees. Now, I
[2:19:46] have rates that can go along with them.
Um, I haven't quite decided what I'll
[2:19:51] start putting those rates together and
figure out what that looks like. Um, but
[2:19:56] and then we'll have to have a meeting.
Well, I'll have to reach out to the
[2:19:59] insurance committees for the unions and
we'll have to basically see what it that
[2:20:04] that those numbers are. Um, ideally, it
would might be nice if I can come up
[2:20:08] with some type of a commitment on what
the county is going to pay for benefits.
[2:20:14] Um, possibly before the next finance
meeting, but definitely before the next
[2:20:18] board meeting, so we can then start
figuring that into our budgeting. uh if
[2:20:23] I can know what we're doing for what
we're going to pay towards uh what plans
[2:20:28] we choose, then that helps us figure out
what we're going to have to spend on the
[2:20:32] uh insurance side out of the budget. So,
>> and Hope Trust is asking for a very
[2:20:37] short turnaround, isn't that right?
>> They are. They put on the the 14th of
[2:20:42] September. Um,
and and I'm this this just goes back to
[2:20:48] me doing this for it's a January one
plan and and we have to have a decision
[2:20:54] by the middle of September just is crazy
to me. But um I and especially after we
[2:21:00] just had another discussion um I'm going
to send an email out to see how many
[2:21:05] plans we can actually offer cuz ideally
it would be nice if we could offer four,
[2:21:10] you know, two of the current or two
current plans and then we could look at
[2:21:14] the two alternate plans, come up for a
price for all four of them and then let
[2:21:18] the employee decide which one best fits
their family needs. But I don't know. I
[2:21:24] mean, I'm pretty sure that health plan
is basically made up. They programmed it
[2:21:30] themselves. So, it's not a Blue Cross or
United Healthcare. So, it seems like
[2:21:33] they should be able to make the plan and
tailor it how they would want to maybe
[2:21:38] have four plans in a group. But, I
haven't asked the question yet. But if
[2:21:42] we could have four plans in a group,
then that really does give flexibility
[2:21:45] to the employees, especially if, hey,
I'm I'm healthy. I never get sick. I
[2:21:50] just need to make sure I don't lose my
house if something happens. I'd rather
[2:21:54] take a less expensive plan at a higher
deductible compared to there may be
[2:21:58] those that are out there that I'd rather
pay more in my premium to have less out
[2:22:02] of pocket. And I think we should be able
to give our employees that choice, but
[2:22:06] we have to have the health insurance
carrier be willing to offer multiple
[2:22:09] plans in the group besides just the two
that we have. So, I'm going to send that
[2:22:14] email out tomorrow and see uh if we
could offer more than just the two and
[2:22:20] maybe if I can get an extension uh past
the 14th of September because I don't
[2:22:25] know that I could have the meetings and
everything with the people that I need
[2:22:29] to in order for them to give me some
guidance on what they're willing to
[2:22:32] accept.
>> And I appreciate you doing that, Jim. I
[2:22:35] don't know if you could help, but
>> the 14th only gives us three weeks
[2:22:40] counting this one. I can have a
conversation and see what we can do. I
[2:22:44] know the their their thing has always
been that with open enrollment being in
[2:22:48] October that they want to have the
material
[2:22:52] done in time. Um, now with advances in
technology, maybe that can be squeezed.
[2:22:59] » You know,
>> yeah,
[2:23:00] » what we could do 3 years ago was way
behind what we can do now. So, um, I did
[2:23:05] do some math based on our current
enrollment on each one of the plans. It
[2:23:10] nets out a 9% increase. We've got 36
employees sitting on the single
[2:23:15] qualified high deductible plan and
that's by far the largest one.
[2:23:21] So it and it and as far as a monthly
increase, it works out to about again
[2:23:25] based on current enrollment in the
current plans $10,375
[2:23:29] or so a month.
>> Yeah. And the the alternate plans that
[2:23:34] they sent
>> are lower. Yeah. Well, I mean are are
[2:23:38] 22% less [snorts] than what the rates
are going to and I think it were like
[2:23:43] 16% less than are current. So for those
employees that are out there that need
[2:23:49] it as insurance is supposed to be for
the just in case and not being used on a
[2:23:54] regular basis, they did come out with a
really good alternate at a really decent
[2:23:59] pricing that I think um if employees
were to look and say, "Hey, I'm going to
[2:24:03] save x amount a month that could be used
towards the higher deductible." And if
[2:24:07] they don't get sick, then they just
pocket that money. So if I were young,
[2:24:12] single, and and healthy, it it's and and
could get into a qualified high
[2:24:16] deductible, I it's my money with if the
if the county is still funding. So it
[2:24:21] yeah, there there is some attract
attraction there for those plan some of
[2:24:24] those plans. I I mean the family rates
are like $600 a month less expensive. So
[2:24:30] uh it just there there's the numbers are
completely different than what they were
[2:24:34] last year and I was pleasantly surprised
to see that. So, I I think the employees
[2:24:38] do have options and the county has
options, too. So, um
[2:24:44] anyway, well, I'll I'll keep crunching
the numbers and and let people know as I
[2:24:47] get them.
>> And I would like I I I'd like to leave
[2:24:51] here tonight with some sense of the time
frame. I ideally I'd like to ask them
[2:24:58] if they could allow us the next time
enough time to
[2:25:04] have the meeting. Derek's talking about
with the insurance representatives
[2:25:09] and the insurance committee uh either on
the 15th and 16th our regular meeting
[2:25:15] days
and then our full board meeting is the
[2:25:19] 28th.
So if if we could have those meetings at
[2:25:24] that time and then hopefully approve it
on the 28th and let Hope know. I realize
[2:25:32] that only gives them 3 days to October
1st.
[2:25:39] » Well, um I I'm actually now that we're s
I'm going to send the email and ask if
[2:25:46] we can have a representative from uh
Hope Trust come and actually explain the
[2:25:51] plans. So that way the union and the
employees are hearing it directly from
[2:25:56] the entity and and me not trying to
interpret nor asking the employees to
[2:26:01] interpret it on their own because
there's definitely going to be some
[2:26:04] differences in how things are covered
and what the out of pockets are going to
[2:26:07] be and I don't want somebody thinking
well I still got insurance but it's
[2:26:11] cheaper and not realize why it's cheaper
because it's not covering near what it
[2:26:16] used to. So, uh, I would feel more
comfortable having a Hope Trust
[2:26:20] representative come and actually explain
those benefits to the employees if we
[2:26:24] can get that meeting set up. Um,
>> so, and I think they've done that before
[2:26:28] in the past.
>> I'm sure I'm sure we can get somebody.
[2:26:31] » So, um, yeah. And then the the final
thing was is we'll definitely have the
[2:26:37] numbers figured out by the end of
September. That's the goal. So,
[2:26:40] employees will have the whole month of
October to decide what they want to do.
[2:26:44] That's the reason why we're trying to
move this along as quickly as we can. Um
[2:26:49] when when you're not going out and
bidding it uh from other carriers,
[2:26:53] you've got a little more wiggle room to
[snorts] work with things. So um but
[2:26:58] yeah, uh the idea is we'll uh have
numbers so people will know what their
[2:27:02] deductions will be in October and plenty
of time for their uh November one date
[2:27:07] for their open enrollment.
So,
[2:27:13] I'm I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let
this go. If I'm assuming the full board
[2:27:19] has to approve the plans that we're
going to offer.
[2:27:23] So, we're either going to do that on the
28th or we're going to need to schedule
[2:27:28] a special meeting. And if we're going to
have to schedule a special meeting
[2:27:33] soon, I'd like to do it tonight because
that's really not a lot of time. And
[2:27:39] we've got Labor Day in there.
>> I was going to say if you have to have a
[2:27:41] special meeting, do it like we've done
in the past sandwiched in on on the
[2:27:45] third Wednesday between meetings
>> when you can get a quorum.
[2:27:51] » There would be room. We've got highway
on Wednesday at 1:30 and uh building and
[2:27:57] grounds doesn't meet until 6, then
public safety at 7.
[2:28:01] » Yeah. I mean, so if you if you had to
have a special board meeting, just do
[2:28:04] like 5:30 or something.
>> Okay. I mean, I'm just throwing out
[2:28:09] there as a thought.
>> It's a good thought,
[2:28:11] » but I mean, if you're wanting to do it
with with a Hope Trust representative,
[2:28:14] we're going to need more than a half
hour to go to go through them.
[2:28:18] » But
>> well, and hopefully you'd have the
[2:28:20] meeting you're you're talking about
first and then the full board meeting.
[2:28:24] » Yeah.
So, but I I would if you had to if you
[2:28:30] had to do a special, but there may be
such a thing as if we could kind of if I
[2:28:36] mean we're looking at basically five
five plans at the moment and if you know
[2:28:40] we just said, "Hey, we like these four.
If if four is an option, we could
[2:28:44] approve offering all four of them and
then go on and we may have an we may
[2:28:49] have an answer of that to that question
tomorrow."
[2:28:52] » Yeah. Okay.
>> If if we can if we can narrow down, we
[2:28:56] can do four plans, then it's just going
to be a matter of how much is the county
[2:29:00] going to pay towards them. And then
>> yeah,
[2:29:02] » then it's really it then it's just
that that'd be perfect because then the
[2:29:08] uh hope trust representative could come
in and explain the four plans to the
[2:29:12] employees and then the employees would
just choose which of the four plans they
[2:29:16] want to take.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
[2:29:18] » So that that works out fine.
I just I'll send the email tomorrow and
[2:29:23] see if we can actually offer four plans.
Okay.
[2:29:25] » And then if we get that answered yes,
then that really does put us in a good
[2:29:29] position.
>> So if we do have to have a special
[2:29:32] meeting, we're looking at maybe uh 5:00
on the 16th. Wednesday the 16th.
[2:29:41] That's a tenative special meeting date.
>> Yeah. Okay.
[2:29:47] Um, and even we'll need to know that
soon because I think we have 10 days to
[2:29:52] post that
is the requirement.
[2:29:58] I'd have to double check. I don't It's
been a while since I've looked that.
[2:30:03] » Okay. Thank you.
Uh,
[2:30:07] what about uh three?
>> Yeah, number three. Um, so in in light
[2:30:12] of some things that have happened over
the last month and um I I just wanted to
[2:30:17] throw out there
that we we do have an opportunity. We
[2:30:22] have a local agency Squires uh out of um
down south in the county. They have
[2:30:28] other county uh business with ICRMT.
They have the uh Pike County Water
[2:30:33] District with ICMT. They're a local
agent that could service and handle our
[2:30:38] account. But I I do believe that it
would we we should have the board vote
[2:30:42] on it and see if that's something that
we'd want to do. And the the the reason
[2:30:47] that I think it's it it's important to
consider uh is number one that they they
[2:30:54] are local, they are taxpayers. Um but
also number two that uh they're they're
[2:31:01] close to where they could come here if
there are discussions or or or need for
[2:31:05] things. And I as I've been going through
the budget and looking at things um for
[2:31:11] what's being spent through our our
current agent um for these uh employees
[2:31:17] that basically are are out of work or
are are going to these two-day meetings.
[2:31:23] Uh aside from us reimbursing the
mileage, aside from monies getting paid
[2:31:28] out um for the hotel stays and so forth,
it just starts to add up. And but what
[2:31:34] what I'm really more concerned about is
is missing days of work. Um because then
[2:31:40] if if if days are being missed, then
stuff isn't getting done at the county.
[2:31:44] And I get that there's a possibility
that there's a lot of information that
[2:31:48] needs to be covered. But I do continue
in education all the time. And there's
[2:31:53] so much that's available online,
especially as it pertains to the
[2:31:56] insurance industry. I don't know that
warranted that it warrants two-day um
[2:32:01] out of out of um out of the area um
meetings. So I wanted to propose that we
[2:32:08] look at changing um our ICMT coverage to
Squire's insurance as our insurance
[2:32:14] agency or our local agent um that would
be able to handle stuff for the 2027
[2:32:20] renewal. And um so I am making a motion
that we do that and present it to to the
[2:32:26] rest of the board for consideration.
[2:32:35] So we have a motion by Derek. Is there a
second for that?
[2:32:40] Second by Lance.
Any discussion?
[2:32:46] All in favor? I
>> I.
[2:32:49] » Any oppose? Nay
>> nay
[2:32:52] » nay.
[2:32:57] » Okay. Um
[2:33:01] » Catherine, I think you're going to have
to call the vote.
[2:33:05] » So it's 33
and the chair will vote. I
[2:33:12] » So motion carries.
>> Uh Don, are you going to read the
[2:33:17] highway minutes?
>> Yeah, I'll do.
[2:33:20] Quick interruption. Um Derek Jason Jason
says we can certainly do three. He's
[2:33:25] going to do a quick check to see if we
can do four.
[2:33:28] » Great. Thank you.
>> Thanks Jim.
[2:33:33] » Okay. Don Highway.
[2:33:38] The road and bridge committee met
Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 at 1:30
[2:33:43] p.m. at the Pike County Highway
Department facility located at 39643
[2:33:48] 260th Avenue, building 4, Pittsfield,
Illinois 62363.
[2:33:54] The meeting was called to order at 1:30
p.m. Roll call had Rita Hoskins, Don
[2:33:59] Foster, and Andy Marlman present with
Joe Cobb absent. Also staff of Chris
[2:34:05] Johnson, Michelle McCartney, and John
McAllister. There were no visitors.
[2:34:10] Public comment was none. Uh payment of
claims. A motion was made by Andy
[2:34:15] Barlman, seconded by Don Foster to pay
claims. Per claims reports dated August
[2:34:21] 19th, 2026. All in favor? Motion
carried. Half a bridge closeouts, there
[2:34:27] was none. Uh new business. The county
engineer discussed that the construction
[2:34:32] projects on County Highway 14 and County
Highway 2 are going very well. A large
[2:34:39] majority of the work is projected to be
done before harvest really gets going in
[2:34:44] full swing. The har the highway
department is looking at options for a
[2:34:49] new tractor and mower as both tractors
currently in use are 22 and 23 years old
[2:34:56] and have required multiple repairs.
A discussion was held regarding the
[2:35:01] highway department's roof and ongoing
need for repair solutions. Under old
[2:35:07] business, there was none. A motion was
made by Andy Barman, seconded by Don
[2:35:11] Foster to adjourn the meeting at 1:50
p.m. All in favor? Motion carried.
[2:35:18] » Do I have a motion to approve the
highway minutes? Tom. Second.
[2:35:23] Don. Any discussion? All in favor? I.
Any oppose? Nay.
[2:35:31] Motion carries.
Uh Derek, GIST.
[2:35:36] » Thank you, Madam Chairman. The GIST
committee was called to order at 4:03
[2:35:40] p.m. on August 18, 2026 at the annex
building. Members present were Derek
[2:35:45] Ross, Don Foster, Jim Shepard. Also
present were Rita Hoskins, Paulyine,
[2:35:49] J.R. Baris, Randy Wallace, and Crystal
Miller. Under old business, J.R. RI said
[2:35:55] that the Foxit or Foxit Plus may be able
to handle PDFs of $12.50
[2:36:00] instead of Adobe. Crystal said the power
outages may be messing with the battery
[2:36:05] backups. J.R. said Tiger Hawk can take
the batteries to Interstate Battery and
[2:36:09] have them replace them. The committee
will wait to hear from somebody if
[2:36:13] backups uh were ordered or replaced. She
also said that they had not tried to or
[2:36:19] tried the new jury message. They will
check in the next month or so. Brandy
[2:36:24] was afraid to try and update CIC on her
own. She will reach out to Tigerhawk and
[2:36:29] have them remote in and help her do the
updates for CIC. The committee discussed
[2:36:33] the need for a dedicated person to track
and update the county's website. This
[2:36:38] will be ongoing, but thoughts were about
an in-house person, possible interns
[2:36:43] from local colleges, etc. Under new
business, there was none. Public
[2:36:48] comments, there was none. the payments
of bills. Don Foster made a motion
[2:36:52] seconded by Jim Shepard to approve
payments of bills totaling $16,440.
[2:36:58] The motion passed. Ajournment Jim
Shepard made a motion to adjourn,
[2:37:04] seconded by Don Foster. The motion
passed and the meeting adjourned at 4:54
[2:37:07] p.m.
>> Have a motion to approve the IT minutes.
[2:37:14] Derek
Lance second. Any discussion? All in
[2:37:21] favor? I
>> I.
[2:37:22] » Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries.
Building and grounds did not meet this
[2:37:28] month. We'll handle those claims under
item 14.
[2:37:33] Uh we previously did public safety
earlier in the meeting. Were there any
[2:37:39] other committees?
Okay.
[2:37:44] » Yep. You got a
You got a two rivers in there.
[2:37:50] » Oh, is it in there?
>> Yeah.
[2:38:03] » Okay.
>> We normally don't read those into the
[2:38:06] record. Is there any need for that?
>> Yeah, I was going to say
[2:38:09] » you got paid to go. So, I was
minutes.
[2:38:14] » Yeah.
>> Well, you asked for them. That's why I
[2:38:17] emailed him.
[2:38:22] » Okay.
If you want, I'll go ahead and read
[2:38:25] them.
>> We We really have not done that for
[2:38:28] » I was going to say we've never done it
before.
[2:38:31] » I don't think they need to be in our
minutes.
[2:38:41] » But this is a separate board meeting.
It's not a committee meeting. No, it's
[2:38:45] not a committee meeting.
>> I guess that's where we're questioning
[2:38:48] it. It's on our board responsible
committee to be on this.
[2:38:55] » Um, yes, I believe. I think that was
decided
[2:39:00] I can't remember when it was, but um
you'll just have to check the minutes.
[2:39:05] There was something the board passed.
There were three uh groups that Two
[2:39:13] Rivers has in a way. One is their their
full board, one is the foundation and
[2:39:19] one is the community action committee.
And the full board and the foundation
[2:39:26] um were officially recognized by the
board and were to uh members were to be
[2:39:33] reimbursed for going. CAA was not.
[2:39:39] Did you go in person, Don?
>> No, I was on Zoom.
[2:39:43] » Zoom.
[2:39:50] » I understand. [clears throat] But I I
think the
[2:39:53] » current policy
>> just need clarification.
[2:39:57] » Yeah.
>> Because I don't have anything.
[2:40:01] » Again, this isn't a committee.
>> Okay. I guess we need to review what you
[2:40:05] have listed and who is going to which
meeting.
[2:40:14] » I think the only thing you're going to
find is the uh
[2:40:20] the action the board took in officially
recognizing those two boards and sending
[2:40:26] representatives.
And then um at some point recently we
[2:40:32] changed membership. I think it was Joey
and we switched that to Don
[2:40:40] and and the board approved Don is the or
by consensus the regular
[2:40:50] meeting. So yes, as as far as the
board's concerned, I think everything's
[2:40:54] done. It should be paid.
Normally they're just on the predium
[2:40:59] report, I believe.
[2:41:06] » Yeah. I I I don't mind if he wants to
read it, but I I look at it the same as
[2:41:11] like UCCCI. I mean, he goes to those
meetings, but he doesn't have to read
[2:41:15] any of what's or
>> or any of the hope trust. I mean, there
[2:41:20] there are things that we sit on that we
don't
[2:41:24] » respond back to. I mean like the regular
keyboard but
[2:41:28] » but I'm fine with however we want to do
it.
[2:41:41] and he's on this. If you go back and
look at the meetings, I think you'll see
[2:41:44] that or the minutes of our board meeting
and it's Don and Joey.
[2:41:51] » It was changed from Joey to Don.
>> We can do four.
[2:41:55] » Okay. That's what I'm saying. But you're
saying this is a we can talk about.
[2:42:00] » Okay.
There's three different listings, I
[2:42:04] guess.
[2:42:07] » Derek and Don are both members.
>> Uh, well, I don't Derek, are you on the
[2:42:13] foundation?
[2:42:17] » You're on the regular board,
>> right? So, there there's the foundation
[2:42:22] which is made up of governing board
representatives, but I am not on that,
[2:42:26] but I'm on the governing board.
>> Yeah. And then there is a community
[2:42:29] action uh agency
>> that is then a third entity that
[2:42:35] actually looks at the
community activities and that is made up
[2:42:41] of community members and some board
members but yeah there's a possibility
[2:42:47] of actually being on three different
boards within Two Rivers itself.
[2:42:51] » Yes. So, I don't know what our county is
committing us to, if it's just the
[2:42:55] governing board or if it's committing us
to all three of the boards, even though
[2:43:00] we do commit ourselves to the boards,
but I just don't normally turn the rest
[2:43:04] of the stuff in. Like all my committee
meetings, like I'm on the finance
[2:43:07] committee and the and I I don't turn
those in. I just go to the committees.
[2:43:11] So, but that's not a full board. That's
a committee, but yet it's still part of
[2:43:15] the board. So, I
I don't know how I'm going to handle it,
[2:43:20] but I definitely turn in when I go to a
full board meeting. And this possibly
[2:43:25] was a full board for the foundation, but
it wasn't the governing board. That's
[2:43:29] why I wasn't there, but God was.
>> Is Natalie still on the foundation
[2:43:32] board?
>> No, she dropped off when she was on the
[2:43:36] law school. So,
[2:43:43] » we used to have Mark uh Sprag on it. I
don't know that we ever
[2:43:48] » He's actually still on it.
>> Yeah, I think he is.
[2:43:52] » He's a community member that's still on
it.
[2:43:59] » Okay, we did item 10. Item 11, new
business. I asked for that. I don't
[2:44:04] think there was any. Um, just an update.
I showed Derek, but we can offer four
[2:44:09] plans.
>> We can
[2:44:11] » we can I just got confirmation from
Jason Booth at Hope Trust.
[2:44:15] » Great.
>> So,
[2:44:16] » so does that change our need for an
insurance
[2:44:21] » committee or when we might
>> um I I'd like to table that answer until
[2:44:26] I do some number crunching and figure
out how it goes. So,
[2:44:30] » okay.
>> I mean, I still need input input from
[2:44:33] people. I just don't know if we need
>> I I think I'd still leave it as a
[2:44:37] possibility, but we know where we know
we can. So,
[2:44:40] » great.
>> Great.
[2:44:42] » Thanks, Jim. That's very helpful.
>> Okay. Any old business?
[2:44:48] » Um, the only thing I was going to ask, I
know I got a couple emails and I've been
[2:44:52] reached out to a couple times
individually regarding the uh
[2:44:55] development project in Pleasant Hill
that was denied. I didn't know if
[2:44:59] there's any other plans to reopen that
discussion or not.
[2:45:04] as far as the zoning board goes or
county business goes, but I've it's been
[2:45:09] requested multiple times that we
reconsider.
[2:45:14] » All right. Are you talking about the
Dollar General?
[2:45:16] » Yeah. Yeah.
[2:45:20] That was all. I didn't know if anybody
else had any contacts on that or not.
[2:45:24] » I guess I probably got the same two
emails you did.
[2:45:26] » I got the two emails from the county and
the county email, but then al I've also
[2:45:30] been reached out multiple phone calls.
[2:45:36] At this point there isn't, but
>> well I I didn't understand the emails
[2:45:40] myself if they've actually found a
different location they're trying to put
[2:45:44] it at.
>> Yeah, that's why I'm not sure if they're
[2:45:46] try if there's any any other official
action on that. I just like I said, I
[2:45:50] know what people have reached out to me
and addressed with me. So
[2:45:55] » is is the old John Deere building still
vacant?
[2:45:58] » No.
>> No.
[2:45:59] » No, it is not. [clears throat]
>> Okay. I'm just asking. I have been to
[2:46:02] Pleasant Hill.
>> I was going to say if Greg was here, it
[2:46:04] would have to be in his office if there
was another location cuz we do the
[2:46:07] zoning for Pleasant Hill. But
>> if there was any official movement, we
[2:46:12] it would have had to come through Greg.
>> Yeah, [sighs]
[2:46:17] » I can ask him. Okay.
>> If he's working on anything, I will do
[2:46:21] that.
[2:46:24] [clears throat]
>> Uh no chairman remarks.
[2:46:28] Item 14 then uh summary of current
expenses and mileage and PDM.
[2:46:44] » Uh it's under it's C
[2:46:49] unless you have it on the PDU report or
something you can Okay.
[2:47:01] Okay. On the billboard, do we want to
put the amounts that we approve?
[2:47:07] » 23,000.
>> It's going to I mean, I changed the
[2:47:09] total. The
building grants can my report today, but
[2:47:15] it's 23,1361.
[2:47:19] Public safety is now 44,87426.
GIS 16,44024
[2:47:26] finance committee 89,68226
[2:47:33] the law library funds Y81 special grand
total of all special funds is 25,8138
[2:47:42] with now grand total of
199,9175.
[2:47:49] That's not right.
What was that total?
[2:47:59] » I read 23,000.
[2:48:03] » Okay. So, if we approve what you just
read, we are including building and
[2:48:07] grounds and public safety.
>> Yes.
[2:48:12] » Yes.
[2:48:16] » Right.
So, now we
[2:48:23] have them tonight. You guys have taken
care of them tonight. So, do I have a
[2:48:27] motion to approve the uh current
expenses
[2:48:33] report as amended?
>> Yep.
[2:48:35] » Tom and second by Lance. Any discussion?
All in favor? I.
[2:48:41] » I.
>> Any oppose? Nay.
[2:48:44] » Nay.
>> Motion carries.
[2:48:50] Um,
and then I don't know if item C needs a
[2:48:54] vote or not. Don went to the Hope Trust
Conference and has a bill for his
[2:49:01] mileage and the clerk's office, I guess,
is wanting me to sign off on it. Uh,
[2:49:10] » right. Um,
the other people I guess have a
[2:49:18] a supervisor who approves their mileage
reimbursement. So I don't know who
[2:49:24] approved walkers
[2:49:29] in my budget
and I put I was using an old temp.
[2:49:37] So I did make a mistake. It should come
out 00105529
[2:49:46] which is my education seminar.
[2:49:52] » Can you get that to Charlie or
[2:49:57] » the clerk's office would need to make
that change?
[2:50:01] » Yeah. I mean either way I'm wearing the
question.
[2:50:08] [snorts]
[2:50:11] » So
[2:50:15] I can just sign Don
if you're
[2:50:24] vote on it because you didn't approve it
during finance. So I guess
[2:50:27] » I don't think we need to vote on it.
I'll just approve it.
[2:50:32] Okay. Uh, comments from the Oh, I we
didn't do the pamper
[2:50:50] is absent. Total of 3824
G all present to 916. Highway J is
[2:50:58] absent. A total of 216
finance all present for a total of 12980
[2:51:06] was cancelled.
Public safety Tom was absent to 9560.
[2:51:14] The two words foster $50 and the
economic development committee meeting
[2:51:21] was Joey present for a total of 197 for
a total for [clears throat]
[2:51:27] 600 total for DM is 1948
[2:51:38] and this would
[2:51:46] Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the
PD uh PDM report?
[2:51:51] » Don. Second by Derek. Any discussion?
All in favor? I.
[2:51:56] » I.
>> Any opposed? Nay.
[2:51:59] Motion carries.
>> Item 15. Is there any u questions from
[2:52:05] the press or public comment?
[2:52:12] Okay, then I'd uh take a motion to
adjurnn. Tom,
[2:52:17] » Lance, any discussion? All in favor? I.
>> Any oppose? Nay.
[2:52:24] » Motion carries. We're adjourned at 953.
[2:52:30] That was a good one.
We have to figure out I [clears throat]
[2:52:34] don't know how they how the schools get
to allocate those funds out of that, but
[2:52:38] » I don't know.
Somehow
[2:52:43] clean up.
[2:52:47] » Okay, let me just get this turned off.
>> Barry Barry Griggs not quite yet.