The McLean County Board returned to its former home on Thursday because of ongoing renovations at its current meeting place.
The board held its regular monthly meeting in the courtroom of the McLean County Museum of History because of the renovations at the nearby McLean County Government Center that also have temporary displaced the Bloomington City Council.
County administrator Cassy Taylor said the county board plans to meet at the museum again next month.
The Government Center work is “taking a little bit longer for the dais, but good things take time. I think you’ll be impressed when you see it at the end,” Taylor said after the meeting.
The county board met regularly at the museum for decades when it functioned as the county courthouse, prior to the opening of the Law and Justice Center in 1991, where the meetings moved.
Current board chair John McIntyre, who served on the board during its earlier years at the former courthouse, reminisced about how the technology and board itself has changed since then.
“We’ve come a long way in 40 years,” McIntyre told the board, recalling a time when board members stood to speak and the entire board (then 27 members), would spend much of the day in committee meetings.
McIntyre also honored former board members who served when the board met at the old courthouse, including Paul Segobiano and Tom Whalen, who were both present.
Segobiano, who served on the board from 1972 to 2018 when he lost in a Democratic primary, suggested the current board should take a less partisan tone.
“Do you want to be an individual, do you want to belong to a party, or do you want to belong to the citizens who need our help and direction,” said Segobiano.
During the Government Center board room renovations, committee meetings are being held in Room 404. All meetings are being live streamed on the county’s YouTube page.
On the agenda, the board:
- Approved a preliminary engineering agreement with Hanson Professional Services of Peoria for the Historic Route 66 Bikeway from McLean to just south of Funks Gove. The county’s share of the $270,000 is about $13,000. The bulk of the funding comes from the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program. This portion of the trail is scheduled to be built in 2025, with completion in 2026.
- Approved spending $500,000 in motor fuel tax funds to cover reconstruction of Horse Farm Road (County Highway 21) south of LeRoy, from U.S. Route 136 to the DeWitt County line. The $4.5 million project started in May.
- Approved a $337,000 agreement with Pennsylvania-based Mission Critical Partners to work with the county’s information technologies staff to build a database and authentication system as part of an overhaul of the county’s electronic criminal justice system.
