County Updates and Brief Board Meeting

The March County Board hearing was only 20 minutes, with most of the business unanimously passed in the consent agenda approved in the Committee of the Whole last week. The News-Gazette had an overview in a blurb in today's paper:

Board commits to rebuild Ludlow-Gifford route
The Champaign County Board committed Thursday night to spending more than $3 million to rebuild a highway in the northern part of the county.

In a 20-0 vote, the board awarded the contract on the project to Cross Construction, which made a $3.18 million bid.

The project calls for reconstructing 5.22 miles of the east-west County Road 9, running from Ludlow to north of Gifford. The road is frequently used for farm traffic and to transport market products...

In other business: — The board voted 20 to 0 to increase public defender salaries to be equitable with salaries for attorneys in the state’s attorney’s office, based on comparable workloads, time admitted to the bar and time in service.

— The board voted 20 to 0 to spend $287,052 to pay nursing home employee benefit time and nursing home management retention bonuses. This money will be included on the last paycheck from the county following the sale of the home, if and when that takes place.

Full blurb available here in the eEdition for digital subscribers. I'm still waiting for the video to be uploaded of the last Committee of the Whole meeting (updated with link) and information from the reentry presentations. In other County government news we had scammers cause the remote bail option to be shutdown for jail and the Forest Preserve doing some controlled burns. WAND had a video a short blurb and a video segment on the remote bail payments here. The News-Gazette had more in yesterday's paper:

Credit card fraud shuts down bail option in Champaign County
About 10 people have been released from the Champaign County Jail since the first of the year after having posted bail using stolen credit card information.

The discovery of the fraud prompted Sheriff Dustin Heuerman on Wednesday to suspend indefinitely the online payment method GovPay.com, which was intended to increase convenience for someone posting bail for an arrestee...

"Since the beginning of 2019, there has been more than $25,000 in bail paid with the remote option from suspected stolen credit card information. We have seen an increase in fraudulent activity as of late and fear that as word of this spreads, more fraud will take place. There are a variety of inmates who have been released as a result of this fraudulent activity and bail amounts have also varied," the sheriff said...

Heuerman said his investigators are looking into the fraud.

Meanwhile, those wanting to post bond for an inmate can still do so by appearing at the jail with cash or an actual credit card, as opposed to just a credit card number. The bond poster must present valid identification and if paying in cash, have the exact amount.

Full article here. And from Monday's News-Gazette, the Forest Preserve's efforts to get native plants to grow involves controlled burns. Video segment and a short blurb available from WCIA here. Excerpt:

Prescribed burning started today at the Champaign County Forest Preserve near Homer Lake.

It is an effort to get native plants to grow.

The area they were in today they attempt to do burns every other year.

More here. More specifically on why controlled burns help in a prairie ecosystem in a later article here.