Richland County board approves wetland mitigation agreement, IT backup purchase and routine claims

The Richland County board on the meeting approved routine claims, authorized purchase of a battery backup system for the county’s CSO dispatch operations and approved a wetland mitigation credit agreement tied to the Not Good Lane project.

At the start of the meeting, the board approved the agenda and the consent agenda by voice vote. In the finance report, Steve Schoenert reported county claims of "$89,009.62" and moved to approve all claims. The motion was seconded and approved following a roll call in which named members recorded affirmative votes.

Later in the meeting, Danny reported that the State of Illinois has planned reimbursement for costs related to the Not Good Lane project but that the only wetland mitigation bank currently available requires a 10% down payment to secure credits. Danny asked the board to approve a mitigation credit agreement to move the project forward. Dennis Graves moved the motion and Steve Schoenert seconded; members approved the motion by voice vote.

Corey, reporting for the IT committee, said the CSO’s batteries were “failing” and that “last time they had a power outage in our CSO, we lost dispatch.” He presented two vendor quotes and recommended the lower-cost option because the system’s goal is to provide run time from outage to generator. Corey gave an estimated cost of about "$36,211" and moved to approve the purchase so staff could schedule installation and order equipment; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote. The board also noted a separate 9-1-1 board request to pick up to $2,500 from the contingency fund (the contingency fund total was stated as $10,000) to help cover 9-1-1–related costs; that request was described as having been unanimous at the 9-1-1 board meeting.

In other IT business, staff discussed establishing a point-to-point wireless link using the OPD radio tower to connect the highway department and the courthouse; the incremental cost to establish that link was estimated at about $4,000. Corey also asked for guidance about which budget or department should track ongoing social media archiving costs; the county previously subscribed to an archiving service and staff noted the county indicated funding would come from the replacement fund for 2025 and 2026.

The meeting concluded after routine announcements and a motion to adjourn passed by voice vote.

Votes at a glance - Motion to approve agenda: approved by voice vote. - Consent agenda: approved by voice vote. - County claims approval: moved by Steve Schoenert, approved; roll-call recorded affirmative votes from named members. - Not Good Lane wetland mitigation credit agreement: moved by Dennis Graves, seconded by Steve Schoenert; approved by voice vote. - CSO battery backup purchase (approx. $36,211): moved by Corey (IT report), seconded; approved by voice vote.

All quotations in this report are taken from the meeting transcript. Where totals or counts were unclear in the record, the article reports the wording used in the meeting rather than inferring precise unspoken tallies.