Quincy Reporter

Adams County Board met Jan. 9.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

The County Board of Adams County, Illinois met at the Courthouse, Quincy, Illinois, on Tuesday, January 9TH, 2023 at 7:00 P.M., pursuant to recess.

PRESENT: Kent Snider, Chairman

Ryan Niekamp, County Clerk

Chairman Snider called the meeting to order.

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

The County Clerk called the roll and the following members were present: Jon McCoy, Tim Finlay, Robert Reich, Brad Poulter, Theresa Bockhold, Brent Fischer, Bret Austin, Keith Callaway, Mark Sorensen, Ryan Hinkamper, Dave Bellis, Marvin Kerkhoff, Mark Dietrich, Steve McQueen, Travis Cooley and Kent Snider.

Total Present: 16 Absent: 5

Absent were: Les Post, Barbara Fletcher, Todd Duesterhaus, Joe Zanger and David McCleary, all excused

Chairman Snider declared a quorum present.

Officeholders, department heads, and/or their representatives also present were: Gary Farha- States Attorney, Lori Geschwandner-Circuit Clerk, John Simon-EMA & Ambulance Director, Jim Frankenhoff- County Engineer and David Hochgraber- Director if IT.

Mr. Austin moved to approve the minutes of the December 12th, 2023 county board meeting as printed and distributed.

Mr. Bellis seconded the motion.

Motion to approve the minutes of the December 12th, 2023 meeting as printed was adopted.

Transportation, Building & Technology

Committee Report (Mr. Bellis)

Bills – The committee met on Tuesday, January 9th and reviewed the bills for the Highway Department, the Maintenance Department, and the Technology Department. All the bills were in order.

Reports

Resolutions

a. 2024-01-501-001 - Resolution reporting bids and awarding contracts from the December 5, 2023, County Motor Fuel Tax Maintenance Material Letting. Attachment A-1

The clerk read the resolution by title only.

Mr. Bellis made a motion to approve the resolution.

Mr. McQueen seconded the motion.

Resolution 2024-01-501-001 was approved.

b. 2024-01-501-002 - Resolution reporting bids and awarding contracts from the December 5, 2023 Road District Motor Fuel Tax Maintenance Materials Letting. Attachment A-2

The clerk read the resolution by title only.

Mr. Bellis made a motion to approve the resolution.

Mr. Sorensen seconded the motion.

Resolution 2024-01-501-002 was approved.

c. 2023-01-501-003 - Resolution reporting bids, awarding the contract to County Contractors Inc., Quincy Illinois, in the amount of $899,128.75 for the construction of a bridge on County Highway 8 (North 2600th Avenue), Approximately 3.1 miles east of Meyer, Illinois, to be known as Section #22- 00094-01-BR, from the December 20, 2023 County Motor Fuel Tax Letting, Authorizing the County Board Chairman to sign the contract and appropriating $460,000.00 from the County Bridge Fund to pay for the remaining balance not covered by Rebuild Illinois Funds. Attachment A-3

The clerk read the resolution by title only.

Mr. Bellis made a motion to approve the resolution with the correction of the year. Mr. Hinkamper seconded the motion.

Resolution 2023-01-501-003 was approved.

New Business

a. Mold Remediation Plan

The mold remediation that was discussed last month has all been done.

b. The committee voted unanimously to bring to the board the option to live-stream our county board meetings.

Mr. Bellis made a motion to approve live-streaming our meetings moving forward. Mr. Hinkamper seconded the motion.

Discussion: Mr. Hinkamper stated that the technology is already available to do it and constituents ask about it routinely. Mr. Farha stated they would maybe need to amend the county code. Mr. Hinkamper stated this would be for streaming only, not participation. Mr. Hochgraber stated the technology and staff are available to do this.

Mr. Finlay asked if our videos are encrypted or if there is a need to. Mr. Hochgraber stated that they are not encrypted but they can look at it if they decide to publish the videos. He stated nobody would be able to modify the videos.

The motion was approved.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 13th, 2024.

Legislative & Judicial

Committee Report (Mr. Reich)

Bills – The committee met on January 9th, 2024 and reviewed bills from the Circuit Clerk, Juvenile Detention Center, Probation Department, Public Defender, State’s Attorney, and the Supervisor of Assessments. All the bills were in order.

Reports

County Code

a. Chapter Eight: Fees and Procedures for Impounding Vehicles

b. Chapter Five: Solar Farms.

Mr. Reich explained that this needs to be reviewed by the States Attorneys Office. Mr. Reich made a motion to table it for next month.

Mr. McCoy seconded the motion.

The issue was tabled for next month.

Resolutions/Ordinances/Action

a. Resolution Number 2024-01-111-005 – Bellwether LLC Cost Study Agreement for the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. Attachment B-1

The clerk read the resolution by title only.

Mr. Reich made a motion to approve the resolution.

Mrs. Bockhold seconded the motion.

Discussion: This has not been done in over 6 years. Mr. Niekamp stated that the cost of this would come from special use funds. Mr. Fisher asked if this would cover other offices. Mr. Niekamp stated that they could look at adding other offices but this just covers his. Mr. Austin stated that we used Bellwether before.

Resolution 2024-01-111-005 was approved.

b. Resolution Number 2024-01-121-006 – Election Day Closure of Certain Services of the County Clerk’s Office. Attachment B-2

The clerk read the resolution by title only.

Mr. Reich made a motion to approve the resolution.

Mr. McCoy seconded the motion.

Discussion: Mr. Reich explained that this was so the office can focus on elections that day.

Resolution 2024-01-121-006 was approved.

c. Resolution Number 2024-01-231-007 – Chapter Eight of the County Code Addition – Fees and Procedures for Impounding Vehicles

Mr. Reich moved to table this to next month.

Mrs. Bockhold seconded the motion.

The resolution was tabled.

d. Resolution Number 2024-01-121-008 – Adoption of Polling Place Agreement Leases Attachment B-3

The clerk read the resolution by title only.

Mr. Reich made a motion to approve the resolution.

Mrs. Bockhold seconded the motion.

Discussion: Mr. Reich stated the rates have not gone up and nothing has changed. Mr. Austin asked if these are vetted and how are these vetted. Mr. Niekamp stated that it’s typically a township building as every township needs one. He stated they also look at compliance for handicap accessibility and have had almost all of these for a number of years.

Resolution 2024-01-121-008 was approved.

Appointments

There were no appointments.

Event Liquor Licenses

There were no event liquor licenses

Pyrotechnic Displays

There were no pyrotechnic displays to approve.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for February 13th, 2024. Public Health & Safety Committee Report (Mrs. McQueen)

Bills – The committee met on January 9th, 2024. and reviewed the bills for the Sheriff’s Office, Coroner’s Office, Emergency Management Agency and Animal Control. All the bills were in order.

Reports

Mr. McQueen reported that they did not receive the reports for the meeting, but John Simon, did report there was extra staffing due to the snow event.

Resolution

There were no resolutions.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for February 13th, 2024. Executive Committee

Committee Report (Mr. Austin)

The committee met on January 2nd, 2024.

There was no business to discuss.

The committee’s next meeting will be February 5th, 2024.

Finance

Committee Report (Mr. Austin)

Bills – The committee met on January 8th, 2024 and reviewed the bills. All the bills were in order.

Report

There were no additional reports.

Resolution –

a. Resolution Number 2024-01-401-008 – State’s Attorney Appellate Prosecutor The clerk read the resolution by title only. Attachment C-1

Mr. Austin made a motion to approve the resolution.

Mr. Finlay seconded the motion.

Discussion: This is an annual item for the appellate process. Mr. Farha thinks it is the same as it was last year.

Resolution 2024-01-401-008 was approved.

Finance

a. Transfer of Fund Appropriation from Paul Havermale, Superintendent of the Veterans Assistance Commission in the Amount of $325,000 to all newly created budgeted lines from Account Number 990-001-5990 – Veterans Assistance Commission – for a Revised Budget Amount of $0.00. Attachment C-2

The clerk read the transfer of fund appropriation by title only.

Mr. Austin made a motion to approve the transfer of fund appropriation. Mr. Cooley seconded the motion.

Discussion: Mr. Austin explained that they are distributing the $6,050 into their programming section.

A roll call vote was taken to approve the transfer of fund appropriation. Those in favor were: Jon McCoy, Tim Finlay, Robert Reich, Brad Poulter, Theresa Bockhold, Brent Fischer, Bret Austin, Keith Callaway, Mark Sorensen, Ryan Hinkamper, Dave Bellis, Marvin Kerkhoff, Mark Dietrich, Steve McQueen, Travis Cooley and Kent Snider.

Toal in favor was 16. Total opposed was 0. Total absent was 5.

Insurance

He stated they were ahead of budget last year and we retain that this year.

Discussion and Possible Action

a. ARPA update on projects

Mr. Austin reviewed the ARPA report that was provided to board members. The finance committee had a recommendation to revise some amounts on some ARPA projects that will not be spent, creating $223,000 of unallocated money after all the recommended changes are made.

Mr. Austin made a motion to unfreeze money to be spent on the DRIVET project and the housing project as well as reduce the village restroom project from $510,000 to $330,000.

Mr. Bellis seconded the motion.

Discussion: Mr. McQueen wanted to get more of an understanding on some things with housing. Mr. Austin stated that we would have county board members to be on the board as representatives. He stated that GREDF will be a good organization to orchestrate this. He stated the motion right now is we agree that we haven’t over-extended ARPA money.

Mr. Austin made a motion to approve to release the funds for the DRIVET project to the amount required to finish the project, reduce the village bathroom project from $510,000 to $330,000 and maintain until we approve a housing project a freeze of $1Million on housing money.

Mr. Bellis seconded the motion.

Mr. Callaway asked if this would overlap with two rivers and the veterans thing we just set up.

The motion was approved.

b. Adams County Housing

Mr. Austin stated that there is a program Growing Residential Opportunities (GRO Fund). This would be to put the million dollars towards subsidized matching for renovations of single family homes and rental housing up to $20,000 per unit. He stated there would be no action tonight as it did not get to everyone soon enough. The motion they just took is leaving the $1Million as a place-holder.

The committee’s next meeting will be February 12th, 2024.

Unfinished Business

There was no unfinished business to discuss.

New Business

Approval of Board Member Travel Vouchers

There were no travel vouchers to approve.

Monthly Reports

Supervisor of Assessments/Board of Review, Juvenile Detention Center, the County Clerk & Recorder’s office, the Public Defender, the Circuit Clerk, and Probation Department,

Monthly check register for December 2023, and Funds Summary report for December 2023 including revenue and expenses.

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

Mr. Fischer seconded the motion.

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

Appointments

Report

a. Houston Township and Houston Road District Decennial Committee Report as Required by 50 ILCS 70/1

Mr. Hinkamper made a motion to receive and file the report.

Mr. Sorensen seconded the motion.

The report was filed.

Announcements

Chairman spoke about the work that Mr. Bellis and the committee has gotten done with mold remediation. Mr. Bellis thanked the maintenance department.

The Chairman recognized Mr. Bockhold for his service to the county and the republican party.

Discussion and Possible Action

Correspondence

Thank you notification from the Genenbacher family.

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

Mr. Austin seconded the motion.

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

The January 9th, 2024 meeting was recessed until Tuesday, February 13th, 2024.

https://www.adamscountyil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/9363/638440213209470000