Jasper County Board Minutes
COUNTY OF JASPER NEWTON, ILLINOIS
County Office Building 204 W Washington St, Newton, IL 62448
May 12th, 2022
The County Board met in regular session on Thursday, May 12th, 2022. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by proclamation according to law by Sheriff Francis. Sheriff Francis led a moment in silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. Members present were Bollman by Zoom, Fehrenbacher, Geier, Hall, Heltsley, Leffler, Pickens, Warfel, and Weddell. Hickox, Kerner, Swick were absent.
Public comments: None
Geier made a motion to approve the agenda. Hall seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
Committee Reports: Standing Committees
Ambulance Department: The Jasper County Ambulance Committee met on Wednesday, May 4th, 2022 Old Business: The Jasper County schools sent the $10,000.00 check in for the agreement with the ambulance. This will cover standbys done by the Ambulance at all Football games as well as any other high traffic events the school request. This will also cover any non-transports done at the school. New Business: ULC has been into the office to look at how they can help out. Some changes have been made already. We have increased the loading rate for calls. This will not change Medicare/Medicaid billing but will help with private insurance. We are also set up with a new Supplier for medical supplies. Outsourcing of billing was discussed. 2 quotes received. 911 Billing is 6.95% of collected amount and AIM is 6.5%. AIM is the company ULC uses. J. Gracey recommend going that way as not only are they cheaper, ULC is already familiar with them which will help shorten the learning curve. Motion by D. Weddell to use AIM for billing. Seconded by D. Kerner All in favor motion passed. Contract with ULC Discussion. It was decided that although it will take some time to see changes that we may not need a full year of consultation and advisement from ULC. The recommendation was for a 6-month Contract at $15,000.00 with a month-to-month contract after that for up to 6 months at $2,500.00 a month if needed. Motion by D. Weddell Second by M. Hall. All in Favor. Motion Passed Informational Items: Equipment update: Unit 2357 had a microphone go bad. It has been replaced. Building update: Nothing to report Staffing: We have a part time medic that has applied and been hired. He will need to get tested into Region 6. This is being set up with his schedule and the availability of the EMS office.The next meeting will be June 1st, 2022 at 8:30 am.
Buildings: The Building Committee of Jasper County met on Monday, May 9th, 2022 at 7:00 pm. Tom’s Report: New doors have been installed on the south side of the county building. A new weed eater for Tom’s use has been purchased and was approved by Pickens. The water softener has been installed in the courthouse building. Tom plans to begin installing an exterior door with a keypad for the county treasurer’s office. Old Business:The committee reviewed a quote from Steffen’s to provide heating and cooling for the courthouse building. Pickens plans to get an estimate from McCoy’s. Henry Carpenter plans to look at the window leak and fix the plaster in one of the courthouse offices. The committee reviewed an estimate from Mahaffey’s to fix the parking lot wall in the south parking lot of the county building. Kerner made a motion to hire Mahaffey’s to fix the parking lot wall for $4,500. Leffler seconded the motion. The motion carried on a voice vote. New Business: The committee discussed the south entrance of the courthouse and discussed possible solutions to the concrete and railings. The committee discussed the Christmas decorations on the courthouse lawn. The committee discussed the ARPA grant money that pertained to the buildings committee. Tom spoke to the committee about his need for more gas money. Leffler made a motion to double his amount of gas money and Kerner seconded the motion. The motion carried on a voice vote. Tom will now receive $200 per quarter for gas. The committee talked about the signage for the south door in the county building. Next meeting: June 6th at 7:00 pm.
Finance: The Jasper County Finance Committee met on Friday, May 6th, 2022. Public Comments: Christina Watts spoke about purchasing Kids Kingdom. The owners have been trying to sell the daycare and Christina was approached. She has been fundraising to buy the daycare and provide daycare to 47 children with a 100 on a waitlist. She has applied for a license with a name change to Little Eagles Learning Center. She currently has part of the down payment. She knows there is a need for daycare in the community and would like to continue to offer the service. Brandon Francis spoke on court security funds which pays for court security. He explained fine money has not been coming in to replenish the funds. In the coming future a decision will need to be made on funding in the future for court security. Treasurer’s Report: Bigardreported the general fund income of $336,789.23 and the expenses of $239,047.39. Fiscal year to date totals areState/General Fund Income $1,258,335.28, Personal property income is $300,103.69, total income $1,558,438.97. Personal property income is the biggest increase seen by corporations and utilities. Expenses to date $1,157,652.30 with a net profit of $400,786.67. New Business: The state now has language that sets the sheriff salary at 80% of the state’s attorney salary. So, the County Officers Compensation Resolution will need to be amended. The county offices credit card limits are set to $5,000 currently. The treasurer, circuit clerk and the county clerk has 2 cards, they are starting to hit the limits. Heltsley made a motion to increase the credit card limits to $10,000. Swick seconded the motion. Motion passed. Juneteenth is considered a court holiday, so the courts will be closed for the holiday on June 20th. Election Day for the General Election for 2022 is considered a state holiday and the courts will be closed. Fehrenbacher made a motion make Juneteenth a county holiday. Swick seconded the motion. Motion passed with Heltsley and Bollman voting no. Solid Waste Management’s 5-year plan has expired. SCRIPT has grant money to pay for the plan to be updated and completed by June 1st deadline for IL Statute. Fehrenbacher made a motion to have SCRIPT update Solid Waste Management’s 5-year plan. Swick seconded the motion. Motion passed. Old Business: AnnMarie, Kemper Auditor, told Clinton the ARPA Funds have to be allocated. The money cannot be in general funds. $813,239 has already allocated. The committee was presented with proposed items to be allocated to: Digitalize County Records, EMA Storage & Animal Control, County Buildings & Other, Highway Department Equipment, and County Building Drive-Up. Swick made a motion to allocate the ARPA funds. Bollman seconded the motion. Motion passed. The probation’s budget needs updated due to salary change in April from $107,000 to $112,000. The coroner’s budget was not updated after it was approved by the committee. Fehrenbacher made a motion to amend the county budget for probation and coroner. Swick seconded the motion. Motion passed. Woods explained the board of review process. Tentative Equalization Factor is back. The state is quick on getting stuff back. Assessor’s office is working on December changes. He is having trouble with mapping. Next meeting Monday, June 6th, 2022 at 8:30 am at the County Building.
Highway Department: The Jasper County Road & Bridge Committee met on Monday, May 9, 2022, 7:00 a.m. at the Highway Office. New Business: County Engineer informed the committee of the high bid for Section 21-01131-00-DR. Currently working with Crooked Creek Township to decide on best option to proceed. Bid price is good for 45 days, so we are holding off on submitting the construction engineering agreement. County Engineer informed the committee of the high maintenance cost of the existing 10-year-old copier and the long-term savings of purchasing new. Andrew informed the committee of a request to reduce building setback from 80’ to 70’ from roadway centerline by Shannon Woodard. Currently waiting on information from Norris Electric regarding overhead line offset requirements. The committee will revisit next month. Discussion was held regarding ARPA funds being designated for the Highway Department to be used for purchase of a new Solid Waste Truck and salt storage building. Also discussed were the possibilities of using Jasper County Highway Department property for the addition of buildings for storing an IEMA trailer and dog pound if needed. The committee will revisit the discussion of the additional buildings at next month’s meeting after more information is obtained. The next regular Road & Bridge Meeting will be held on Monday, June 13, 2022, at 7:00 a.m. at the Highway Department.
Operations: The Operations Committee of Jasper County met on Wednesday, April 18, 2022 at 7:00 pm. Old Business: The committee discussed employee recognition. The committee discussed cyber security with Kevin Kern and Ray Diel from ITRMC. Kern reviewed the cyber security cyber application and reminded the committee about cyber training. Kern answered questions from the committee. Next meeting: May 16, 2022 at 7:00 pm.
Public Safety: The Public Safety Committee of Jasper County met on Monday, April 18th, 2022 at 6:00 pm. Monthly Reports: A new dispatcher, who is up to date on training, has been hired. Sheriff Francis is in the process of hiring a correctional officer who will work part time until the new jail building has opened. Someone will be hired from Kemper for the jail as well to work on tech equipment. The jail building is nearing completion but several furnishings will still need to be installed after construction is finished. People have been contacted about installing furnishings. EMA director Ed Francis reported that there were four callouts for helicopter EVAC within the last month. Consoles have been ordered for the jail building but have a 10-week waiting period before it will be delivered. Heltsley received a call from the county treasurer about picking up the newly purchased animal control projector rifle. Ferguson contacted the vet’s office about tranquilizer dosage. Old Business: The committee discussed the animal control property. The committee discussed a bill received from EJ Water for Water Service Line Protection Program for the animal control building at $3.95. Fehrenbacher made a motion to approve a $3.95 a month add on for the animal control building. Leffler seconded the motion. The motion carried on a voice vote. New Business: The committee discussed changing the monthly meeting time to 6:30 p.m. Pickens made a motion to move the Public Safety committee meeting time to 6:30 p.m. Leffler seconded the motion. The motion carried on a voice vote. Next meeting: May 16th at 6:30 pm
Informative
Law Enforcement Center Pay/Progress: Currently the law enforcement center is 93% complete. There was a projected completion date of May 2022, but it is looking to be June 15 but will not have generator which predicted delivery date of October and July the detention ceilings to be installed due to not being available. Offices could be occupied for July 1, but the jail portion would not be until later.
Board of Health- Hall gave an update of numbers.
Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development – No updates, 70 jeeps participated in the Chamber jeep run.
Geier made a motion to approve the consent agendacontaining the following items: Approval of County Board April 14, 2022, Minutes; Approval of April and May Standing Committee Minutes; Appointment of Beverly Gorrell to the Jasper County Housing Authority Board; Appointment of Jack Thompson to the Jasper County Housing Authority Board; Appointment of Thomas Matson to a 2-Year Term on the Board of Review Jasper County Board of Review (3) Members: John Miller (2023), Brock Kessler (2023), Thomas Matson (2024); Appointment of Sarah Kinkade to the Southeastern Illinois Economic Development Authority (2025); Approval for SCIRPDC to Revise the Five-Year County Solid Waste Management Plan; File County Reports; and Allow Claims. Heltsleyseconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
Old business:
During the April Board meeting, we approved the FY2023-FY2026 Elected Officials Compensation. Just a few days following that the Illinois General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed into law a comprehensive bill that amended the County Code regarding the Sheriff’s salary. “The salary of a sheriff elected or appointed after the effective date of this Act shall not be less than 80% of the salary set for the State’s Attorney under Section 4-2001 for the county in which the sheriff is elected or appointed. The State shall furnish 66.66% of the total annual salary to be paid to a sheriff. Said amounts furnished by the State shall be payable monthly by the Department of Revenue out of the Personal Property Tax Replacement Fund to the General Revenue Fund of the county in which the sheriff is elected or appointed. The county shall furnish 33.33% of the total annual salary.” This new law negates the sheriff’s part of the compensation resolution we passed. Thus, we will need to amend the resolution to reflect the new law. The revised resolution before us this evening would call for the sheriff to receive 80% of the salary set for the State’s Attorney this is the minimum salary we are required to pay;this could be increased higher if the board so wishes. At the 80% mark the Sheriff’s Salary would be $113,655 compared to the current $65,000. The State would furnish $75,770 of the salary and the County would furnish $37,885. The State’s Attorney salary is reviewed by the State of Illinois Compensation Review Board and thus the language of the resolution says the Sheriff is to receive 80% of the State’s Attorney Salary for a given fiscal year but that figure could change in a given fiscal year when the State’s Attorney salary changes, UCCI’s legal team says awarding the Sheriff’s salary in this way is conforms to State Statute. Heltsley made a motion to adopt the Amended County Officers Compensation Resolution (FY2023-FY2026). Geier seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
United Life Care/Ambulance Service Consultation Contractwill be taken up following the Closed Session.
New Business:
The County Coroner’s corrected budget amount that was initially approved by Finance last Fall was not correctly inputted in the final budget. The budget reads $50,100 for total expenditures. The corrected amount should read $57,250 in total expenditures. The Circuit Court recently increased the salary for the Probation Officers the salary line in the Budget reads: $107,000 for the two positions. The corrected amount should read $112,000 for the two positions. Weddell a motion to adopt the Amended FY2022 Jasper County Budget [Amendments to Coroner & Probation Lines]. Pickens seconded the motion. Motion passed on a roll call vote with Bollman, Fehrenbacher, Geier, Hall, Heltsley, Leffler, Pickens, Warfel, and Weddell. The motion is adopted. Hickox, Kerner and Swick were absent.
The auditor recommends that we allocate all remaining American Recuse Plan Funds. In March the Board allocated $813,239 of the American Recuse Plan Funds to go towards 911 Dispatch System/Consoles and HVAC System for the New Jail and Sheriff Office. As pointed out by the Auditor the American Rescue Plan Funds are not permitted to remain in the General Fund. These funds can be altered after allocation and before use. The Finance Committee recommended the following: $550,000 – Digitalize County Records for the County Clerk, County Assessment Office, and Circuit Clerk. Currently, there is no backup in event of fire, flood, or disaster. This would also provide greater public access to these records.$200,000 – EMA Storage & Animal Control this would be for the possible building or leasing of storage for the EMA equipment and potential relocation of animal control in the future. $197,091 – County Buildings & Other this is to take care of requested improvements in the County Building and Court House that have been requested. Any improvements requested need to be reviewed by the Building Committee before being acted upon. This is also the fund for all remaining ARPA funds. If items come up in the future that is not already allocated, they may be pulled from this fund. We have until 2024 to spend the ARPA funds. $100,000 – Highway Department Equipment this is to help with the purchase of the solid waste tandem cab & chassis truck for dumpster hauling and roll/off as well as the salt enclosure shed and concrete improvements. This money would help with the already strapped Solid Waste Levy. $6,300 – County Building Drive-Up would replace the drive-thru transaction drawer as well as new audio equipment. This is used during tax time and was used a lot during COVID. Geier a motion to the allocation of $1,053,391 from Jasper County’s ARPA Funds to Digitalize County Records, EMA Storage, County Buildings & Others, Highway Department Equipment, and County Building Drive-Up. Heltsley seconded the motion.Motion passed on a roll call vote with Bollman, Fehrenbacher, Geier, Hall, Heltsley, Leffler, Pickens, Warfel, and Weddell. The motion is adopted. Hickox, Kerner, Swick were absent. Board or finance would approve the changes to the allocations.
The Court offices including State’s Attorney, Circuit Clerk, and Probation are closed for the Juneteenth Holiday (June 19). It was discussed at Finance if all other county offices should be closed as well. It was approved at Finance by a 3-2 vote to send to the full board. This holiday is now both a Federal and State of Illinois Holiday [Juneteenth in the United States commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.] States Attorney said the county is not required to make it a holiday. Hall and Weddell were concerned on the friction it would cause amongst departments. Leffler and Heltsley were concerned on the cost for the holiday. Fehrenbacher made a motion to approve Changes to the County Holiday Schedule add Juneteenth. Hall seconded the motion.Motion passed on a roll call vote with Fehrenbacher, Geier, Hall, Pickens, Warfel, and Weddell voting yes. Bollman, Heltsley, Leffler voted no. The motion was adopted. Hickox, Kerner, Swick were absent.
Board Comments: None
Chairman’s Comments: UCCI – Washington D.C. Meeting. Four county board members attended from Jasper and there were 19 Counties from Illinois represented at the meetings in Washington DC. Presentations on cybersecurity, meeting with U.S. Senators Durbin and Duckworth, presentations from White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs regarding local government and federal government relations; the National Telecommunications and Information Administration regarding Broadband Equity Access and Deployment; the Department of Transportation on major infrastructure funding; and additional congressional meetings with Representatives Mary Miller (current Rep) and Mike Bost (potentially our new rep). This meeting and the annual conference and meetings we as board members attend through the United Counties Council of Illinois are important for the content they provide and the ability to discuss and network with our counterparts around the State sharing ideas and concerns to better all of our 102 counties. July 24 – July 26th UCCI annual conference.
Geier made a motion to go into closed session for Discussion of Personnel 5ILCS 120/2(c)(1) at 7:39 pm. Hall seconded the motion. Motion passed on a roll call vote with Bollman, Fehrenbacher, Geier, Hall, Heltsley, Hickox, Kerner, Leffler, Pickens, Swick, Warfel, and Weddell.
Came out of closed session at 8:07 pm.
Following the April meeting, it was approved to move forward with United Life Care on a consultation contract after some discovery days at the department. The Ambulance Committee on May 4th recommended a 6-month contract for $15,000 with an option of month-to-month retention beyond that of $2,500 monthly up to a year total. This money will be taken from Working Cash [Loan]. Weddell made a motion to Approve the United Life Care/Ambulance Service Consultation Contract. Lefflerseconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
Leffler moved to adjourn at 8:08 pm. Geier seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
The next regular Jasper County Board meeting will be held on Thursday, June 9th at 7:00 p.m.
Amy Tarr, Jasper County Clerk
