6:30 PM We will go ahead and call the meeting to order.
If you would please go ahead and acknowledge your presence on the voting machine.
Looks like everyone is present except Mrs. Deineger and Mr. Fricke.
Mr. Jogerst, would you please lead us in prayer and Mrs. Baker, the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation Can I get an approval for tonight's agenda, please, by Mrs. Baker?
Is there a second?
By Mr. Diddens.
Is there any discussion on the agenda?
Seeing none, if you would go ahead and vote for approval of the agenda.
I believe that passes unanimously.
Thank you.
As far as a consent agenda, are there any items that would be, or any board members would like have removed seeing none is there a motion to approve the consent agenda by mr. Newton is there a second by mr. Brandt any discussion on the consent agenda seeing none if you would please go ahead and vote for approval of the consent agenda I believe that passes you know unanimously as well is there any public comment tonight okay seeing none we will move on to sheriff Sheriff Stovall's employee recognition.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, board members.
Once again, it gives me great pleasure to recognize our 2025 award winners.
In 2022, I boasted that I wanted to be the law enforcement agency in Illinois that all agencies measured against.
Last week, I attended the Illinois Sheriff's Association training conference, and we are the talk of the state.
From being full staffed to our professional recruitment video, our office transparency, and hiring the best and brightest employees.
We have the secret of law enforcement, corrections, and telecommunicator success, and I'm not sharing that secret.
This would not be possible without the Chairman, the Public Safety Chairman, Mr. Bush, the Public Safety Committee, and all of you as County Board members.
I want to thank you for the cooperation and the trust you have given me and my office.
As I move into the presentation of the awards, you will see the Sheriff's Office Best of the Best of 2025.
Civilian Employee of the Year.
I proudly present the civilian employee of the year to social service administrator Erica Erickson for overall willingness to go an extra mile while exhibiting an exceptional work ethic, positive attitude, and respect for all members of the community and the office.
Thank you, Erica.
Corrections officer of the year.
I proudly present corrections officer Jacob Hein for overall willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty Thank you, Jacob Hine.
Exceptional Service Award.
I'm proud to present Deputy Matt Carpenter's exceptional service medal for his courageous and selfless actions at Willow Lake on December 24th, 2025.
Acting without hesitation, Deputy Carpenter, alongside a citizen, utilized a remote to navigate a partially ice-covered lake successfully rescued a dog that had fallen through the ice, resulting in the animal's safe recovery without injury and without harm to any citizens or responders.
The family was very happy getting their dog back.
Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Award, or better known as ACE.
Once again, the second in a row, Deputy Jordan Brickson.
For exceptional dedication and outstanding achievement in the Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Program.
Deputy Bricks is recognized for his commitment to enhancing traffic safety and criminal apprehension through proactive enforcement and investigative efforts.
Diligence in looking beyond the ticket has significantly contributed to the safety and security of our community.
Thank you, Deputy Bricks.
And the Chair of the Deputy of the Year.
This is something all of you had something to do with.
I'm very happy that you decided to go this route with our Special Victims Unit.
I'm proud to present our Special Victims Unit Investigator, Corinne Brickson, for an overall willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, while exhibiting exceptional work ethic, positive attitude, and respect for all members of the community and the office.
Now with that said, not that anyone else here has done anything less, but Corinne has taken that program that all of you voted and allowed me to have a position there and taken our special victims unit to all of the survivors of crimes and has done a wonderful job keeping the Stephenson County and its citizens safe and prosecutions moving forward against these people.
Corinne, thank you so much.
The last is the manager of the year.
I'm proud to present Lieutenant Michael Bacchus this board for consistently going above and beyond the college while exhibiting, exhibiting strong leadership qualities and exceptional work ethic, positive attitude and respect for all members of the community and this office just goes to show he's down at conference, bettering his skills to all of these people.
So I'm proud to give Mike that award tonight.
In closing, I made a big deal out of SPU, but all of you were a big part of getting us our victim's unit, our crime suppression unit and our social services.
All of you voted for me and had the confidence in me to start those programs was able to find the people that were in to be put into the programs and excel.
We are excelling every day.
They do more and more and more.
They're always asking me for something more to do.
I can't keep keep up with them.
Thank you for all of you for allowing us to do that and making our community safe.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sheriff Stovall.
I appreciate you setting the level of excellence and making sure it's carried out.
And thank you all of you for making sure that we're safer.
Appreciate that.
All right, with that, move on to the zoning report.
Director Williams, if you'd please come forward.
Good evening.
The Zoning Board of Appeals held its hearing on Thursday, February 12th, 26 with a full quorum.
The first time for the evening was for Mike and Nicole Kalos who are requesting a special use permit to allow for the construction of a single family dwelling located in the Egg District, located at 9251 West Cedarville Road, Lena.
Testimony was received and neighboring property representative raised a concern.
The ZBA recommends approval of this board subject to condition that the soil boring and be completed.
Is there a motion to approve by Mr. Jogerst?
Is there a second?
Mr. Newton, is there any discussion?
Could you fill in on what the objection was?
Yes, she was just concerned at some property adjacent to the property in question.
She has a creek that runs through it and livestock, they wanted to make sure that the drain field for the septic wasn't going towards that creek.
The second hearing for the night was Vinnie Lingle who is requesting a special use to operate a dog boarding, daycare, and grooming facility located at 9350 North Unity Road, Winslow.
Testimony was heard and one objection was raised, the ZBA recommends approval by this board.
Is there a motion to approve by Mr. Diddens?
Is there a second?
Mr. Jogerst?
Mrs. Williams, did you have a question?
My question was from the last one, but it will apply to this one.
What's the objection?
Sure.
One adjacent landowner was concerned of the parking.
They were going to coordinate with each other and exchange numbers to make sure they had each other's contact if something did happen, like there was excessive parking.
Any other discussion?
Seeing none, you may go ahead and vote.
That also passes unanimously.
Thank you.
And the final item please.
Excuse me.
The final hearing of the evening was for Kyler and Dana Mears.
They are requesting a special use permit to build a single family dwelling in the Ag district located at 8706 East Rideout Road, Rideout, Illinois.
Testimony was heard and no objections were raised.
The ZBA recommends approval by this board.
Is there a motion to approve Mrs. Williams second by Mrs. Hayes Mr. Newton did you have a question okay the other discussion none you may go ahead and for this item and that passes unanimously any other information no sir all right thank you very much appreciate it we honor the Chairman's report the NACO The legislative conference is being held February 21st through the 24th.
Mr. Newton, thank you very much for representing Stephenson County out there.
Look forward to hearing what you learned from out there.
As I mentioned last month, the UCCI legislative conference is scheduled for April 14th and 15th.
They are accepting registrations already.
It's a pretty well attended event.
So if you have interest in going, I know Mr. Bush has already reached out to me.
I would recommend that you let me know sooner than later so that we can make sure we can get accommodations.
And then finally the 2026 Leadership Academy program is scheduled for May 31st, June 2nd, June 28th through the 30th.
Many of us have attended that in the past worthwhile event, so I would recommend if anyone has interest to please let me know and we'll get you registered for that as well.
With that, we'll move on to the appointments.
There are two.
I would like to have these separated if that is okay with the board.
So we'll move to the first one, the approval of the Appointment.
To the first one, it's the approval of the appointment of Renata Hepler to the mental health board by Mr. Bush.
Is there a second?
Second by Mrs. Baker.
Is there any discussion?
Seeing none, you may go ahead and vote.
That passes unanimously.
The next is the approval of the appointment of Diane Yokum to the mental health board.
Mr. Moderow to approve.
Is there second by mr. Newton is there any discussion let me let me get your microphone on mr. Newton if you can give me just a second here there thank you go ahead quick question is is there has she served on this board or any other board before I can't speak to any other board but no she has not served on seven eight 708 board previously.
Anything else, Mr. Newton?
No.
Okay.
Thank you.
Mrs. Hayes, go ahead.
Thank you, Chairman.
I'll be voting no tonight.
Ms. Yocum, a couple years ago during a political campaign, drove by my house and and she took a picture of it and put it up on Facebook with my address.
I questioned the safety of that judgment call and I questioned that well the judgment too, who does that?
Thank you.
All right, I would also like to speak with this Mr. Whalen, would you mind coming up and sitting in my seat while I address this podium?
Pretty sure most of you know this, but the role of the 708 board is to evaluate the need of agencies in Stephenson County and how those dollars that are levied for the 708 board are distributed.
There's currently nine local agencies.
If you look at this resume, the skills that would be brought to the 708 board, a calm and thoughtful demeanor, cultural sensitivity and intelligence, and John.
I would like to thank all of you for your patience, deep empathy, compassion and good listening skills, concerns for just and fair treatment of all human beings and their needs, the ability to work with different people from a variety of different backgrounds, comments that I have personally read on social media over the last several years would say otherwise.
Especially if you do not align politically or ideology.
People seem to be far more important than the overall need of the people.
Terms like fascist, Nazis have all been used on social media to describe people of an opposing political party, regardless of the person.
I very much have in doubt the judgment of any individual that would use terms like that when it comes to mental health or the betterment of the community.
So I too will be voting no on this tonight.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Whalen.
Any other discussion?
Seeing none, you may vote.
It appears that motion is to approve is defeated.
If I'm looking at this correctly, there was only one yes vote and that was Mrs. Williams.
Is that correct?
Did anyone else vote yes besides Mrs. Williams?
Okay, thank you.
All right, we'll move on to action items and information from standing committees.
First up is Mr. Whalen for Finance.
No action items.
Do you have any information out of your committee, sir?
All right.
Thank you very much.
Move on to public property and safety.
Mr. Bush, it appears you have three action items.
Let me get your microphone turned on real quick, Mr. Bush.
Bush.
Sorry about that.
Go ahead, sir.
Yeah, we have three, but they're pretty much all combined together here.
What it is, the contract was supposed to be included in the new union contract for the sheriff, which wasn't, so it had to be implemented in.
Also it was talked about that no employee will receive seniority credit if they are not getting paid for a certain amount of time.
That's in case of an officer or something that gets injured and used up all their FMLA's and sick leave and everything else.
That now that they will not receive seniority.
There were some concerns with some committee members, but the union agreed with it, so we had no other choice.
There was also a mention of Officer Erin Quartey, I think, I hope I'm pronouncing her right, who was mistakenly placed on the list due to an incorrect number are service years contracted the emergency response team will now receive time and have comp time for training so with that I so can I on all three contracts okay so the motion is to approve all three memorandums there a second by mr. Jogerst is there any discussion seeing none you may go ahead and vote and that passes unanimously.
Thank you, Mr. Bush.
Any other information out of your committee, sir?
No.
All right, thank you very much.
Move on to administration.
Mr. Jogerst, you have three action items, I believe.
Yes, thank you Chairman.
First one is approval of agreement with DevNet for KAMA and with EDGE license maintenance and support.
This is our assessor says this is a renewal contract we've had in place for about 15 years.
Her office, the County Clerk's Office and Treasurer's Office all use this software for their work.
This is a five-year contract, was reviewed and will be good through 20 and 2030, excuse me.
2026 Cost is 13,911 dollars and 92 cents and it goes up to 14,067 dollars and 24 cents in in 2030, which is only a $156 increase over those five years, which is barely a 1% increase.
So with that, I'll make a motion to approve.
Thank you.
Is there a second?
Second.
By Mr. Moderow.
Is there any discussion on this?
Seeing none, you may go ahead and vote for this.
That passes unanimously 13 to 0.
Thank you.
Your next item.
Yes, Chairman.
The second one is approval of agreement with Empower Health Services for employee wellness screenings.
This is a another duplicate we've done for the last four or five years here and the cost has stayed pretty steady.
I think there's a slight increase here a little bit this year, but it's something that we want to do to reduce our overall health care costs.
So I'll make a motion to approve approve please.
Thank you.
Is there a second?
Mr. Whalen, is there any discussion on this item?
Seeing none, you may go ahead and vote for this item.
That also passes unanimously.
Your next item please.
We have another, we have a new approval of agreement with Empower Health Services for a walking program for the county employees and I think the basic cost here is like $700 flat fee and this will help our employees get moving and reduce health costs and get them motivated and active.
So I'm gonna make a motion to approve.
Thank you.
Is there a second by Mr. Whalen?
Is there any discussion?
By Mr. Whalen.
Is there any discussion?
Mr. Newton, go ahead.
Quick question.
I mean, it sounds very interesting.
So, is there some sort of a reward for the employees?
What is it doing?
Yeah, you want to speak to that, Georgia?
Let me shut my microphone off here for you.
You want me to shut mine?
Yes, we at the department head meeting discussed how what everyone would feel would motivate their employees to take part.
We're going to do teams by department.
There's a way to average scores, so it's fair across the board.
We've also decided to do like a top earner individually, top team, and kind of one random draw so that it'll motivate even the people that may not think they're gonna be one of the top achievers.
As long as you meet the expectation of the program, you'll you'll be in a drawing for a for a reward as well.
I did talk this over with Ms. McWright from Diamond Brothers and she thought it was a good good incentive good program to to start so.
Thank you.
Anything else Mr. Newton?
That's all.
Mrs. Williams go ahead.
So how many people do you think that are going to do this?
What are we talking?
How much money are we talking?
So $700 per person.
Rate per participant and eligibility.
So it's $700 for the county as a whole.
We gave the employee numbers.
There was a request also made for the County Board to have a team, if they so choose, involved.
I don't want to steal Mr. Jogerst's thunder there.
I mean, I hate to say it, but I don't need the program, this program, to get me motivated I was just gonna tease everybody to get on board let's have a team here for the County Board to also participate I know a lot of us walk every day and and hey let's see how good we can do you will do us some good too so thank you all right just so you know I walk 10 miles on Sunday.
Well you're on our team then so.
Go ahead Mrs. Newcomer.
Just to kind of add for those of you that were not in the committee when we discussed this, it is an app that everyone who takes part will download on their phone.
They'll automatically track it, log into a website, and keep track of everything.
So we're going to do a virtual course through different sites within the county.
All right.
Anything else from anyone?
Seeing none, you may go ahead and vote for this.
That also passes unanimously.
Thank you all for that.
Mr. Jogerst, any other information out of your committee, sir?
No, that's it.
Thank you, Chairman.
All right, very good.
We'll move on to court services.
Mr. Diddens, no action items.
Any information out of your committee?
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Just want to commend the the individuals that are running our court system.
They're doing a wonderful job.
We have a very dedicated staff and I'm very proud to be on this committee.
So thank you.
No, I appreciate the comments and I appreciate your leadership on that committee.
All right, we'll move on to Nursing Committee.
Mrs. Baker, no action items information.
Yes, Census is at 78 and they hired a new ADON, Assistant Director of Nursing, and they hired a new business office manager and other than that that's all I have.
I think the census was 70 last month, does that sound about right?
So now it's up to 78.78.
Highest it's been in about five years I think, so that's great.
All right, thank you very much.
We'll We'll move on to planning and development, Mrs. Baker, no action items, any information?
No, because we did not have a meeting.
Because of lack of quorum, correct?
Correct.
All right, very good.
Thank you.
Finally, we'll move on to public works, Mr. Brandt, you have a few action items.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First one is our resolution for the Highway Department 26-03, which is a full depth reclamation of the Cedarville Road, 0.64 miles.
It is being fully funded 100% by the federal, from federal funding back in 2024, local project funding grant.
So with that, I move to approve this resolution.
Thank you.
Second by Mr. Jogerst.
Any discussion?
Seeing none, you may go ahead and vote for this.
That passes unanimously.
Thank you all.
Your next item, please.
The next item is HD 2604, which is a resolution to purchase a new truck.
This is a cab and chassis through Sourcewell.
Sourcewell is a company that allows us to do requests for proposals and whatnot through Source Valley and was checked with Mr. Larson before we went out for a bid on this.
The bid was awarded to Truck Country of Iowa for $134,906.
We'll see how long it takes us to get the truck.
I think the current estimates right now is it might take the rest of the year.
So with that I move to approve this resolution.
Thank you.
Is there a second by Mr. Moderow?
Any discussion?
Mr. Hadley, go ahead sir.
What's this truck going to be used for?
This is a truck that will be a snow plow truck.
I have a truck chassis on the back and plows.
So, can I go ahead?
Yes, go ahead sir.
So, there was only one bid or this is the the best bid or because I was wondering why we didn't go through, you you know, Monroe truck bid or something like that.
I see we're getting out in this truck from Iowa.
I think we'll let Mr. Rasmussen talk about the benefits of Sourcewell.
He's more familiar with that than I am, so.
And I might just say something before I see that they're adding on tariffs.
I see we got to pay for that.
Sourcewell is a method of purchasing.
It's similar to state bidding.
It's a joint purchase agreement that, but we got it cleared with Mr. Larson that we can go ahead and purchase stuff through that.
Can we get those type of trucks through state bid also or they don't have those on state bid?
No, state bid has not been really advantageous for us, but we feel SourceWell works out better for us.
Have we talked to anybody that's done this before with this company and stuff that they've been very successful on?
With SourceWell or the.
Yeah I mean you know somebody that's used them before so yes yes and they like them and everything yeah the county engineers talk a lot with each other and I remember a series of emails a few months ago about using source well some some counties allow it some counties don't just depends on and this is the first time we used them and I think we've used it before correct we have we've We bought a John Deere tractor a couple years back.
Okay.
Thank you.
Anything else?
Okay, thank you.
I just wanted to add on to that.
So, we said the estimate for this truck probably end of the year.
If we start looking at other sources, when we have looked at other sources, the committee has seen a lot of estimates that are measured in multiple years.
And when a truck like this is needed, it's needed now.
So yeah a year other options there's there's lots to look at but then we're looking at lots and lots of wait time all right thank you sir and and if I may chairman thank you for your addition there Adam but this is to replace a a truck that's 1999.
So, we're moving up in the year.
I'm sorry.
No, he's keeping the truck for now and then we will be looking at selling it privately ourselves with once we declare its surplus property.
So, that's down the road a little bit.
Anything else?
All right seeing none you may go ahead and vote for this item.
That passes unanimously.
Any other information of your committee sir?
Just a quick comment.
I want to thank everyone for their support for these resolutions and I will be brief because I know Mrs. Baker is chomping at the bit here.
But the surefire signs for spring, I saw it this week.
Robin's in the yard and the road postings went up on 210 miles of highway in the county.
So if everyone doesn't know what that means we've put weight restrictions on all of our roads and that's to preserve the pavement so so yes springs on its way that's it Mr. Chairman very good thank you no new business listed on the agendas or anything anyone else anyone else would like to bring up seeing none is there I would say that was a motion to adjourn by mr. Bush seconded by Mrs. Baker, is that correct?
Yes.
Any discussion?
All right, if you would please vote for adjournment.
That passes unanimously.
Thank you everyone.