Quincy Reporter

Adams County Board met May 12.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

The County Board of Adams County, Illinois met at the Courthouse, Quincy, Illinois at 7:00 P.M., pursuant to recess.

PRESENT: Kent Snider, Chairman

Ryan Niekamp, County Clerk

Mr. Matt Obert gave the invocation which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Chairman Snider called the meeting to order.

The County Clerk called the role and the following members were present: Mark Peter, Matt Obert, Robert Reich, John Brady, Seldon Totsch, Les Post, Theresa Bockhold, Joe Zanger, David Hoskins, Todd Duesterhaus, Bret Austin, Steven Demoss, Rebecca Weed, Ryan Hinkamper, Dave Bellis, Marvin Kerkhoff, Raquel Piazza, Taylor Rakers, Barney Bier and Kent Snider.

Total Present: 20 

Absent: 0 

Vacant: 1 

Absent were: None.

Chairman Snider declared a quorum present.

Officeholders, department heads, and/or their representatives also present were:

Lori Geschwandner-Circuit Clerk, Wendy Venvertloh- Director of Court Services, John Myers- Adams County Coroner, John Simon-EMA & Ambulance Director, Jim Frankenhoff- County Engineer, Rich Wagner from the Sheriff’s Department, John Frankenhoff- Technology Director and Sue Hester- Director of Administrative Services.

Mr. Zanger moved to approve the minutes of the April 15th, 2020 county board meeting as printed and distributed.

Mr. Rakers seconded the motion.

Motion to approve the minutes of the April 15th, 2020 meeting as printed was adopted.

Transportation, Building & Technology

Committee Report (Mr. Post)

Bills – The committee met on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at 6PM to review the bills for the Highway Department, the Maintenance Department, and the Technology Department. All of the bills were in order.

Reports – Mr. Post stated that they received a brief report from the County Engineering and as one can see, there are a few projects that are moving forward.

Resolutions –

a. 2020-05-501-008- Resolution for approval of a Plat of D & D Sill Subdivision, located in Section 10 of Mendon Township, subject to approval of the County Engineer’s subdivision checklist. (Attachment A-1)

Mr. Brady made a motion to approve.

Mr. Zanger seconded the motion. Resolution 2020-05-501-008 was approved.

b. 2020-05-501-009 - Resolution reporting bids and awarding a contract to Diamond Construction Company, Quincy, IL, in the amount of $460,905.83 for the resurfacing of 1.682 miles of County Highway 4 (E 1700TH Street), beginning 5.2 miles north of Plainville, known as Section #19-00052-04-FP, from the May 7, 2020 County Motor Fuel Tax Letting. (Attachment A-2)

Mr. Post made a motion to approve.

Mr. Zanger seconded the motion Resolution# 2020-05-501-009 was approved.

c. 2020-05-501-010 - Resolution reporting bids and awarding a contract to Emory Sapp & Sons Inc., Columbia, MO, in the amount of $392,612.20 for the resurfacing of 1.088 miles of County Highway 33 (North 30th Street & Weiss Lane), between IL 96 (N 24th St) and Koch’s Lane, known as Section #19-00149-02-FP & 19-00150-02-FP, from the May 7, 2020 County Motor Fuel Tax Letting. (Attachment A-3)

Mr. Zanger made a motion to approve.

Mr. Brady seconded the motion.

Resolution# 2020-05-501-010 was approved.

d. 2020-05-501-011 - Resolution reporting bids and awarding a contract to Asphalt Stone Company, Jacksonville, IL, in the amount of $311,661.12 for a Cape Seal Preservation Treatment on 5.144 miles of County Highways 8 & 9, in and east of Meyer, IL, known as Section #20-00000-01-GM, from the May 7, 2020 County Motor Fuel Tax Letting. (Attachment A-4)

Mr. Brady made a motion to approve.

Mr. Post seconded the motion.

Resolution# 2020-05-501-001 was approved.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for June 9th, 2020 at 6PM in the County Board Room.

Legislative & Judicial

Committee Report (Ms. Piazza)

Bills – The committee met on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 6PM in the County Board Room to review the bills from the circuit Clerk, Juvenile Detention Center, Probation Department, Public Defender, State’s Attorney, and the Supervisor of Assessments. All of the bills were in order.

Resolutions-

a. Resolution# 2020-05-121-013 Retail Liquor License Resolution (Attachment B-1)

Mr. Duesterhaus made a motion to approve. Mr. Hinkamper seconded the motion.

Mr. Obert asked what this resolution does. Ms. Piazza stated that the resolution would push all currently filed Retail Liquor Licenses in the clerk’s office that expire at the end of June to expire at the end of August of this year. In addition, the fee for renewal of the second half of the year would change to $150.00 instead of $200.00. This resolution only applies to the 2020 calendar year.

Resolution 2020-05-121-013 was approved.

Appointments-

a. Ursa Street Light District re-appointment for Scott A. Wray as a trustee for the 2020-2023 term. (Attachment B-2) Mr. Obert made a motion to approve.

Mr. Brady seconded the motion. The appointment was approved.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for June 2, 2020 at 6PM in the County Board Room unless the new Legislative and Judicial Chairman advises different.

Public Health & Safety

Committee Report (Mrs. Weed)

Mrs. Weed stated that the committee did not meet in April; however, she did review the bills in the Clerk’s Office for the Sheriff Department and EMA all related to COVID-19 – they all appeared to be in order.

Mrs. Weed stated that she did not have a report from the Coroner but will report next month.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 at 6:30PM in the County Board Room.

Finance

Committee Report (Mr. Austin)

Bills – The committee met on Monday, May 11th, 2020 in the County Board Room to review the bills. All of the bills were in order.

Report— None.

Resolution – None.

Finance-

a. Additional Fund Appropriation – From Sue Hester, Director of Administrative

Services – an increase of $2,925.00 to Revenue Account Line Item# 021- 102-4230 – CIRMA Dividend Return—for a revised budget amount of $2,925.00 (Attachment C-1)

Mr. Austin made a motion to approve the fund appropriation. Mr. Hoskins seconded the motion.

A roll call vote was taken: 20 in favor, 0 against, 1 vacant

The fund appropriation was approved.

Budget-

Mr. Austin stated they will be doing some one-on-one with department heads. They are going through to see if they can find non-payroll, or non-essential, items that can be cut from the budget up to 5% from each department. Those meetings will start next week.

Insurance-

Mr. Austin asked Mr. Hoskins to explain the CIRMA dividend return. Mr. Hoskins stated that we are part of a cooperative with CIRMA. The advantage is they don’t have stock or share-holders. At the end of the day, if there’s surplus of funds, such as from 2010, we get some of the benefits of that. We will get 4 installments from that. It appears that 2011 will also be a profitable year for CIRMA and possibly more funds available to us again. We will know more in October. CIRMA spoke to us today in regards to things going on and different liabilities. Overall, they spoke about liability and risks the county would be taking on if we were to re-open. They made recommendations on managing that risk and keeping the liability and exposure of county’s negligence at bay.

Mr. Austin stated that we are happy to get a lump back from the dividend. Mr. Austin stated he felt we should report that because he doesn’t think that the citizens of our county are seeing it. It is a very likely scenario that if we were to take a vote to directly oppose the governor’s stay at home executive order, there are a lot of layers the citizens would like to understand. We could open up to a lot of liability if we take this to an open vote. How we enforce those locally has more discretion. In liability aspects, we just need to be aware of them before we do anything. Mr. Hoskins has been putting time into these meetings and the organization has served us well.

The committee’s next meeting will be June 8th, 2020 at 6:00 PM. Jail Sub-Committee

Committee Report (Mr. Peter)

Report-

Mr. Peter reported that the city and fire department performed their inspection last week for occupancy permit #1 and the issue with the sprinkler system is now completed. HOK and Bric are in the process of performing their second walk through inspection (punch list). Architectural, MEP, security and elevator inspections are completed. County / WBCI punch list is ongoing. Once the HOK and Bric punch list is received and completed by contractors staging, occupancy of the new facility (move in sequence) will be managed by the Sheriff’s Office for all departments of the County and City. The Virtual tour has been filmed and is being edited and voiced over. Should be in Sue’s hands next week to put on the County website.

Resolution-

a. Change Order# 0024 – 15 total items – 13 were cost increases, two of the items were a significant cost decrease. Most of the expense items, the largest one was camera revisions and hardware revisions. That was over $17,000. There are several other things such as an elevator piece. There was additional painting that had to be done. There was a one-time key cabinet software that got expensive. It had to be done. There were three (3) kitchen floor sinks needing changing. There were just a lot of different items. 13 were additional costs and two (2) were reduced. $26,324 is the total for the change order. (Attachment D-1)

Mr. Peter made a motion to approve the Change Orders. Mrs. Weed seconded the motion.

Change Order# 0024 was approved.

Mr. Peter reported that Sid (Wilson) hopes that the work will be done by the end of this month. There are still things ongoing. Whenever we have control of the building, we will try to get a walk through done. We will then turn it over to the Sheriff’s Office. They have already been doing some training where they can. Hopefully soon, they will be able to transfer the inmates.

Mr. Obert thanked Mr. Peter. He (Mr. Obert) knows Mr. Peter has been an advocate for replacing the old jail for a long time. He has put numerous hours and long commitment in. The whole committee has. Mr. Obert wanted to make sure Mr. Peter was acknowledged and also the committee members.

Mr. Peter stated he is glad they have had the support even though it seems like there were a lot of issues through the process. He thanked everyone for the patience. He also stated that it is a great project that will serve our county well.

Mr. Snider stated that he has had a comment that we got a fifty (50) million-dollar jail for thirty-two (32) million dollars.

Executive Committee

Committee Report (Mr. Austin)

Report –

Resolutions / Actions –

a. Resolution# 2020-05-001-014 – Resolution Requesting Modification to Governor Pritzker’s Restore Illinois Plan. (Attachment E-1)

Mr. Austin asked the Clerk to read the three main points from the resolution.

Mr. Niekamp read:

1) The 28 Day phasing window should be reduced to the 14-day window as outlined by federal recommendations. A 28-day window is too long and unnecessarily punishing communities like ours who maintain a low disease burden and may see increased cases due to restrictions being lifted in neighboring states.

2) The regions in our state should be broken down in to Emergency Medical Service Regions as you mentioned in the press conference. The rationale for combining two districts into one region was said to be medical capacity. It is highly unlikely a spike in cases in a community four hours away will equate to our healthcare system being unable to care for our residents’ medical needs.

3) Medical measurements used to determine proceeding with another phase should begin on March 20th; the original date of the stay at home order. The May 1st starting point for measurement is arbitrary and fails to recognize the sacrifices taken by every resident in Adams County to meet the necessary precautions of the original stay at home order.

Mr. Austin stated that the beginning is very similar to the last one they passed.

Mr. Austin made a motion to approve. Mr. Hinkamper seconded the motion.

Mr. Duesterhaus asked if we have a spike in cases, can we readjust this.

Mr. Austin stated that we could. There is actually a change-back in our plan where we could go back one phase or pause at a phase. We would be using that template. In this resolution, we are trying to shorten the windows between phases as well as change when the clock started essentially. He stated that in our CIRMA conference, and in the next one, we could get stronger language in our plan for dealing with that. This specific resolution is more about the timing about when things started and what the windows would be for each phase as it relates to our situation here.

Mr. Duesterhaus stated he supports small businesses and he is worried about a spike coming later on. He stated that if we are safe and do it slow than he is in support.

Mr. Austin stated his point is well taken and he thinks everyone has those same things in mind. Mr. Austin stated this is a good start for us because we have a different case load, disease count, and many other things. We need to do right by our businesses.

Mr. Kerkhoff asked what date we are looking at.

Mr. Austin stated if we agree to the 3 bullet points, we would have been in the next phase may 8th. He stated that there is more detail in the plan. He stated there are a lot of people who did a lot of good work and thought for this. He hopes we will make that impression on the state government.

Mr. Obert stated we are not telling people to open businesses after this. We are just asking the governor to change his order to recognize we are ready.

Mr. Duesterhaus stated this is a new normal and people need to abide by the limited restrictions we would have.

Mr. Zanger asked what the state response was.

Mr. Obert stated that the governor said he would take it under consideration.

Mr. Austin stated that he believes the governor stated we would be closed until the end of May and that was not the result we were looking for.

Mr. Austin stated we resubmitted immediately following that press- conference. We have heard from the public say that this isn’t even fast enough for them, but we would like to perform each link in the chain to avoid liability. We may feel like we are passed this immediately, but we would open ourselves up to too much liability. It is important that we perform these actions and these ideas have been submitted. We may get more regional support to create a bigger group

Voice Vote was called and Resolution# 2020-05-001-014 was approved.

Chairman Snider stated the resolution will be sent to the Governor’s Office first thing in the morning.

Mr. Post asked what plan B is.

Mr. Austin stated they would start getting with counties around us. Mr. Austin would encourage everyone to make the contacts they have with surrounding groups. That would be our next move.

Mr. Post stated he thinks we should be starting that now.

Mr. Reich asked if our state legislators have any say in this at all.

Mr. Austin stated that he thinks one filed a lawsuit. He thinks another thing on top of the liability situation is that the licensure is not under the governor himself, but he has the connections to those who control that.

Mr. Reich asked if there were any downstate legislators who can help with this initiative.

Ms. Piazza stated that the legislators don’t have any way to do anything without being in session as they do not have any emergency powers and the Governor has not allowed them to be back in session. An appellate court decision would be how the legislator gets back in session.

Mr. Austin stated that we aren’t getting the results we want and it is disappointing, but we will keep trying.

Unfinished Business

None

New Business

Approval of Board Member Travel Vouchers –

The Clerk read the travel voucher that was submitted by Seldon Totsch for April 21st, for a Committee Meeting; May 4th for a Special Adams County Board Meeting; and May 12, 2020 for the Adams County Board Meeting for a total of 180 miles. The total voucher request is $103.50. (Attachment F-1)

Mr. Obert made a motion to approve the voucher. Mr. Peter seconded the motion.

A roll call vote was taken:

17 in favor, 3 against (Hoskins, Austin, & Rakers), 1 vacant The travel voucher was approved.

Monthly Reports – The County Clerk had monthly reports from the Supervisor of Assessments/Board of Review, the Probation Department, Juvenile Detention center, The County Clerk/Recorder’s office, Treasurer’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office, Monthly check register for April 2020, and Funds Summary report for April 2020 including revenue and expenses.

Mr. Duesterhaus made a motion to receive and file the monthly reports with the appropriate committee.

Mr. Zanger seconded the motion.

Motion to receive and file the monthly reports with the appropriate committee adopted.

Appointments – None

Discussion and Possible Action –

Chairman Snider stated that Mr. Barney Bier will move over to the Legislative and Judicial Committee as Chairman.

Correspondence

1) Letter from the Federal Communications Commission regarding a new Tower Submission Packet. (Attachment G-1)

Mr. Zanger moved to receive and file the correspondence with the appropriate committee.

Mr. Obert seconded the motion.

Motion to receive and file the correspondence with the appropriate committee adopted.

The May 12, 2020 meeting was recessed until Tuesday, June 9th, 2020.

https://www.co.adams.il.us/home/showdocument?id=4695