McLean County Board

The fiscal 2024 budget is nearly 16% higher than last year’s plan, and is built around the county’s 2023 levy bringing in about 13% more money than the 2022 figure.

McLean County's Zoning Board of Appeals voted Tuesday night to recommend a new amendment be added to the county's zoning code to allow the government body to regulate where carbon sequestration wells are placed.

Applicant OneEarth Energy is seeking a special-use permit to build three sequestration wells in McLean County. The wells would be used to confine carbon underground after it is captured at OneEarth’s ethanol production plant in Gibson City.

Randall Knapp replaces longtime board member John McIntyre, who until September served as board chair.

Republicans David Blumenshine, Chad Berck, Cathy Woods and Randall Knapp have thrown their hats in the ring to fill the seat left vacant by the recent resignation of former board chairman, John McIntyre.

The McLean County State’s Attorney’s office has issued a legal opinion saying the county has only limited authority to regulate carbon sequestration wells.

So-called "carbon sequestration" takes carbon dioxide produced by industrial processes like ethanol plants, compresses it to a liquid form, pipes it across the Midwest, and injects it deep under bedrock layers in places like Decatur, and potentially McLean County.

District 1 representative Catherine Metsker was elected as board chair on Thursday after a series of votes that determined who would fill the position vacated by longtime member John McIntyre.

Eric Hansen, the director of volunteers at the McLean County Museum of History, was the only candidate to file for the county board District 8 seat ahead of Thursday’s deadline.

The McLean County Board's Land Use and Development Committee has approved a zoning ordinance amendment that would regulate the placement of CO2 sequestration wells 1,500 feet away from occupied homes, livestock shelters, school or community buildings and commercial/manufacturing buildings.