News

County Board approves engineer's study on courthouse repairs

Posted October 25, 2014 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

CHESTER -- During its scheduled meeting on Friday, the Randolph County Board of Commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with Honeywell Business Solutions for an engineer's estimate on what it would take to repair the Randolph County Courthouse.

Kevin Bollman, a business consultant with Honeywell who was in attendance at the meeting, said the agreement is non-binding.

"The end goal is to find whatever project you want to do to be budget-neutral," Bollman told the board.

The agreement will allow Honeywell to perform an energy audit on the courthouse to identify areas for improvement. That would include examining rebates from utility companies.

"A lot of the systems are at the end of their lifespan," Bollman said. "We're ready to start the audit immediately."

On Aug. 28, the board heard a comprehensive "physical needs assessment" presentation from Quadrant Designs, Inc. architect Michael Schneider that identified the structural integrity of the courthouse and jail.

Replacing the 42-year-old courthouse roof was one of the top priorities of Schneider's assessment.

During discussion on Friday, Commissioner Marc Kiehna mentioned the possibility of grants through Illinois Energy Now, which is an energy efficiency program through the State of Illinois. Kiehna said rebates through that program could trim between 15 percent and 75 percent off energy improvement costs.

According to its website, Illinois Energy Now has more than $70 million available annually for energy rebates to public facilities that make large-scale equipment improvements to their electric and gas systems.

In other action, the board approved offering GovTech Services Inc. as a way to allow county residents the ability to pay their property taxes over time instead of all at once.

"This program will allow people to pay into this as an escrow account that they can use to pay their property taxes," said Randolph County Treasurer Doyle "Zig" Jones. "It has nothing to do with the county. I think it's a good program to save the taxpayers money and offer a better service."

Jones said taxpayers are not obligated to use the service.

"You don't have to do this," he said. "This is an opportunity for taxpayers to not have to jerk $2,000 out of their account at one time."

Board Chairman David Holder called the service a "Christmas club for real estate taxes."

"You don't know how well it works until you try it," he said.

Holder asked Jones if the county would be notified if someone signed up for the service.

"If the county got no word of it, it would be the taxpayer's responsibility to forward the money to the proper taxing body," Jones said.

The board also approved a resolution approving the budget of an appellate prosecutor for 2015 and accepted a cash bid from Heck Farms, of Ellis Grove, for a three-year contract to farm 60 tillable acres of the Wehrheim homestead, also in Ellis Grove.

Heck Farms was the highest of four bidders at $167 per acre, per year.

"It takes us out of the farming business and into straight rent," said Holder, who added it was the largest, county-owned non-commercial property.

Highway Department

Randolph County Engineer Mike Riebeling said the county purchased 225 tons of road salt for $127 per ton, more than twice the amount of the 2013 price of $60 per ton.

"Our salt shed is full, so we've done everything we can," Riebeling said. "It varies every year depending on how much room we have in the shed."

Health Department

Randolph County Health Department Administrator Thomas Smith told the board there was a temporary delay, not a shortage, in the shipment of flu shots.

"It's not that we haven't ordered it or it's not in the pipeline, we just haven't received it yet," he said.

Smith said he is getting inundated with conference calls on Ebola preparedness and that local public health officials would be responsible for monitoring if a potential case arrives in Randolph County.

"The CDC said they are being very careful not to over-order protective gear," Smith said.

Smith said if an active case of Ebola appears in the county, that patient would be likely flown to a proper treatment facility.

"They wouldn't stay in Randolph County very long," he said.

Zoning

The board approved two appointments to the Randolph County Zoning Board of Appeals. Roy E. Schlueter was appointed to a one-year term expiring June 30, 2015 and Todd Jones was added to a five-year term expiring June 30, 2019.

In a separate matter, the board approved a request from Caleb Moen to rezone a 30-acre tract from agriculture to rural residential.

Moen is separating the property into three, 10-acre tracts for his grandchildren with the intent they build houses on the tracts.

Article Categories
News