Meeting Summary and Briefs: Montgomery County Board Coordinating Committee for June 25, 2026

Montgomery County Board Coordinating Committee Meeting | June 25, 2026

The Montgomery County Board Coordinating Committee met for just under an hour and a half on Thursday, June 25, 2026, in the County Board Room on the second floor of the Historic Courthouse in Hillsboro, and took no action on anything but adjournment. Five of six members attended; Mark Hughes was absent. There were no public comments. The bulk of the meeting was reports — from Information Systems Director Curt Watkins, whose department is fighting a continuing rise in phishing attempts while collecting applications for a possible new hire, and from EMA/EPA/911 Director Dan Hough, who described loose cattle in Fillmore and mutual aid sent to Coles County after a tornado. Both are covered in full in separate stories, as are the committee’s discussion of screening Freedom of Information Act requests for artificial intelligence and the county safety committee’s review of a Bushue HR return-to-work program.

The remainder of the minutes is a preview: under each standing committee’s heading, the Coordinating Committee’s record sets out the business those committees expected to take up in the weeks ahead. Those previews are not accounts of anything that has happened, and are reported below as what they are.

Sheriff Signals Coming Changes in Local Law Enforcement

Under “Other Business,” the minutes record a single sentence: Sheriff Tyson Holshouser discussed imminent changes in local law enforcement and potential staffing impacts. The record says nothing else — not what the changes are, not whose staffing they would affect, not whether the impacts run to the sheriff’s office or to a municipal department, and not when they would arrive. Holshouser attended the meeting along with Chief Deputy Lance Weitekamp. The county’s own budget planning has already identified the sheriff’s office as one of the departments requesting additional staff. A sheriff describing imminent change in front of the board’s coordinating body is worth a phone call; the minutes do not permit any further account of what he said.

Bike Trail Land Deeded to Waggoner

The minutes record, as a completed fact, that the remaining portions of the Green Diamond Bike Trail have now been deeded to the Village of Waggoner. The village would like the county to reconsider criteria for reimbursement for oil and chip, the record states. No figure, no agreement date and no explanation of the existing criteria appears in the June 25 minutes; the item was set out under the Development & Personnel Committee’s anticipated business.

Federal Solar Tax Credit Check Arrives

The county has received its federal tax credit check, according to the Finance & Budget Committee’s entry in the minutes. The amount is not stated, the projects are not identified, and the minutes do not say when the check arrived or where the money will go. The item was listed as anticipated business for the finance committee to review.

Plumber at Work at 127 N. Main

Chairman Doug Donaldson reported that the plumber was at work at 127 N. Main, the county’s Specialty Courts building. That is the whole of the entry. The building carries a $100,000 repairs and improvements budget and has been the subject of running committee attention through the spring.

Signage Sought for New County Buildings

Committee member Chad Ruppert asked the Buildings & Grounds Committee to consider signage for new county buildings. The minutes do not identify which buildings, what kind of signage, or what it would cost.

Ruppert Asks for Pattern Energy on the Agenda

Under the Development & Personnel Committee’s “Other Business,” the minutes record that Committee Chair Ruppert requested Pattern Energy be added to the agenda. Ruppert has been the board’s most vocal member on the wind developer’s obligations under the county’s code of conduct for land agents. The minutes give no indication of what he intended to raise.

Geronimo Power Presentation Anticipated

A new name appears in the county’s renewable energy file. Under the Development & Personnel Committee’s anticipated business, the minutes state that a presentation from Geronimo Power is likely. Nothing else about the company, its project, or its relationship to any other energy developer active in the county appears anywhere in the record.

Committees Preview a Heavy Summer

The minutes set out anticipated business across the four standing committees. Buildings & Grounds expected to open and review bids for a Historic Courthouse boiler replacement, review cost estimates for south porch lighting, and make a recommendation on an Otis Elevator surcharge. Roads & Bridges anticipated a 50/50 pipe culvert replacement, bid results for a box culvert, and a Walshville Bypass update and engineering agreement. Development & Personnel expected to review wind and solar ordinance recommendations from legal counsel Andrew Keyt, a union negotiation schedule, an employee handbook update, an MCEDC budget request, and new Small Biz Grant applicants. Finance & Budget anticipated an audit presentation, coal fund reports, election judge commissioning, Fund 375 purchases, and a tax sale resolution that will be required when new legislation becomes law.