The Morgan County Commissioners discussed a heavy amount of bills today and a confusing letter from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office on mail-in ballot applications.
Morgan County Commissioner Chairman Brad Zeller says he came to Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggoner last week about the letter he received in the postal mail about voting by mail: “I came to [Waggoner’s] office with the letter that I had gotten from the Secretary of State’s that was confusing because I didn’t return my application in because I had planned on voting in-person. The letter made it seem like you had to take some kind of action. I think the letter was misleading a little bit.”
Waggoner says she received over 150 calls to her office about the letter last week. Waggoner told Commissioner Ginny Fanning that early voting starts Thursday at the courthouse: “I believe the verbiage was just a little misleading. No one has to vote by mail. You may choose to vote by mail. You can early vote, or you can choose to go to your precinct and vote on Election Day. Early voting starts on Thursday the 24th and will continue through November 2nd. If people go to the Morgan County website, our hours and times have been posted for early voting.”
In other actions, the board passed one of the final allotment of bills from the previous fiscal year. Zeller says that some bills fell through from the previous fiscal year: “We will have two sets of bill again this year. We will finish up with the 2020 bills in the stated amount of $12,761. I pulled one of those bills out. It was $10,000 from the General Assistance fund to MCS for a temporary housing grant that we participate in every year, so that was the remaining significant bill in that $12,761.”
The commissioners also passed new bills in the current fiscal year in the amount of $73,823.60; with $16,500 of that amount going to Patrick Engineering for their work on the Lincoln Land Wind citing permit application study.
The board approved the three-year reappointments of Steve Rolf to the Willow Creek Drainage District Board and Ricky Barnett as a trustee to the North Scott Fire Protection District. The board also approved one day liquor license requests for Hamilton’s Catering for October 10th & 16th. The commissioners are not scheduled to meet again until the month of October.