<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4U5AYd_1Gkjb2xx00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4U5AYd_1Gkjb2xx00" width="1986" height="1250" ><figcaption>Members of the Ford County Public Building Commission — clockwise from left, Jeff Lattz of rural Garber, Tom McQuinn of rural Paxton, Del Bruens of Paxton and Tom Townsend of Gibson City — meet on Thursday, Oct. 29, in the board room in the basement of the sheriff’s office and jail in Paxton. The panel meets again today, Nov. 4. Daniel L. Chamness/Ford County Chronicle</figcaption></figure>PAXTON — The Ford County Public Building Commission approved the language for its next lease agreement with the Ford County Board for the courthouse and nearby sheriff’s office and jail on Thursday, Oct. 29.The proposed one-year lease, like those in the past, outlines conditions under which the county would continue to lease the courthouse and nearby sheriff’s office and jail from the commission, which owns the two buildings, and be reimbursed for facility-related maintenance and operational costs via property taxes levied by the county on the commission’s behalf.“It’s mostly the same as the old lease,” the commission’s chairman, Del Bruens of Paxton, told his fellow commissioners before the 4-0 vote.The only exceptions, Bruens said, are “some language that’s been taken out” — such as “some redundancies” that had been included in the last lease referencing a “justice center,” which the county does not have, along with some references to the Ford County Public Health Department’s former office building on Taft Street, which the commission no longer owns — plus “a few things that we have added (in Section 2, under ‘operations and maintenance’) that are things the commission will not be responsible for” reimbursing via this year’s tax levy, including computers, copiers, software programs and applications, furniture and phone and internet service for individual offices, along with costs for postage and maintenance on county-owned vehicles.Also added was a statement clarifying that “the commission may discharge its contractual responsibility for the operation, maintenance, upkeep and safe keeping of the premises by contracting with the county (under the lease) to perform those functions on the commission’s behalf,” although “the county’s performance under such a contract shall not relieve the commission of its contractual responsibilities under this lease or in large the commissioners’ obligations beyond the limitations and exclusions of Section 2.”The proposed lease still requires approval of a formal resolution by both the commission and county board. The resolution was listed for possible approval on the commission’s meeting agenda Thursday but was not yet ready to be reviewed.The commission plans to approve the resolution, if ready, at its next meeting, scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, in the board room in the basement of the sheriff’s office and jail at 235 N. American St. in Paxton. The meeting is open to the public.Earlier in October, Bruens had noted that Commissioner Tom McQuinn of rural Paxton, also a Ford County Board member, “does not want to go with the old contract,” resulting in the drafting of the new version. The commission had considered the hiring of an attorney to review the proposed lease but ultimately declined to pursue that option after State’s Attorney Andrew Killian agreed to review it.The commission’s tax levy for 2026 — for real estate taxes payable by Ford County landowners in 2027 — shows $289,721 in taxes to be collected to cover the county’s facility-related maintenance and operational costs from this fiscal year, which ends Nov. 30, including costs for operating supplies, building maintenance, grounds upkeep, salaries and benefits of maintenance staff, and electricity, natural gas and water service.In addition to Bruens, commissioners present Thursday included McQuinn, Tom Townsend of Gibson City and Jeff Lattz of rural Garber. Absent was Commissioner Ron Shapland of rural Cullom. Other businessAlso during the commission’s Oct. 29 meeting: The commission met briefly in closed session to discuss the possible acquisition or sale of property, with no further discussion or action taken after the meeting was reopened to the public. According to the agenda for the Nov. 4 meeting, the commission is expected to discuss and possibly approve a resolution transferring its interest in property to the county before briefly adjourning the meeting and then reconvening it at 3:45 p.m. at the former Ford County nursing home property at 1240 N. Market St. in Paxton, where the commission is expected to discuss and possibly take action on acquiring the property for a future purpose.In the treasurer’s report, Treasurer Taylor Burnett said an auditor was starting the commission’s annual audit. Sheriff Chad Johnson said he likely would redo the bidding process for the replacement or repair of cell doors and locks at the jail after no sealed bids were received by the deadline the last time. Although two companies have expressed interest in the project since then, Johnson said he believes the county would be legally required to redo the bidding process. Johnson said he would check with “the powers that be” to confirm it.The commission discussed the need to fix potentially leaking capstones at the jail’s roof line and drainage problems at the building’s corners. “These are all areas where water can bleed in, cause damage to the bricks on the outside,” Bruens said, noting some capstones are missing mortar, requiring patching. “We don’t want those capstones leaking, because then that’ll get water in behind the roof membrane and get water down the walls.” Before proceeding with hiring a company to do the work, the commission directed the sheriff to first obtain informal cost estimates for the project to determine if its cost would likely exceed the $20,000 threshold that would trigger a requirement to solicit sealed bids via public notice. McQuinn said he believed the cost would be “real close” to requiring bids.The sheriff said the county’s maintenance employee, Shane Jensen, would be sealing up leaking windows in the courthouse’s dome using plexiglass.The sheriff said testing for the presence of mold spores in the air at the courthouse has shown good results so far, as samples taken from one section of the building “came back great” and “sterile.” Johnson said he was now awaiting the results of testing on the “other side” of the building and expected to receive them within the next “couple of weeks.” The testing is being done before any repairs or renovations are done to the courthouse basement — which flooded in August, prompting the probation department’s staff to move its offices from there to a downtown building — and a decision is made on the basement’s future use. Bruens suggested the possibility of using it for storage once the flooding issues are fixed. Johnson said the basement had about “five or six inches of water” standing despite sump pumps working. “They just couldn’t keep up,” Johnson said, noting it was “a lot of water.” </div></body>

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PAXTON — The Ford County Public Building Commission approved the language for its next lease agreement with the Ford County Board for the courthouse and nearby sheriff’s office and jail on Thursday, Oct. 29. The proposed one-year lease, like those in the past, outlines conditions under which the...

Lease for courthouse, jail sees commission’s approval

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PAXTON — The Ford County Public Building Commission approved the language for its next lease agreement with the Ford County Board for the courthouse and ne

Lease for courthouse, jail sees commission’s approval

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