URBANA – With the acceptance of a check Thursday night for $84,446, the Champaign County Board closed out the nearly 10-year effort to rebuild the county courthouse clock and bell tower.
Board member Steve Beckett, also a member of a citizens bell tower committee, presented the check from James and Leslie Liautaud of Champaign. The Liautauds had pledged to match recent contributions from county citizens.
Since the project was announced, Beckett said, the citizens group has raised $1.154 million in private funds to rebuild the tower to its original 1901 height.
“I hope you all think the effort was worthwhile. We certainly do,” said retired Judge Harold Jensen, an honorary co-chairman of the citizens committee.
Also Thursday, the board:
– Awarded a contract to Trane U.S. Inc. for installation of a replacement chiller at the downtown Urbana correctional center.
– Learned that Beckett and other board members have introduced a resolution to create an independent, 11-member commission that would be responsible for drawing county board districts following completion of the 2010 census. Under past practice, the majority party on the board has redrawn county board districts.
Already the Champaign County Farm Bureau and Champaign County Chamber of Commerce have lined up behind the plan. Several county board Democrats, however, have said they are opposed to the idea.
Beckett asked policy committee chairman Tom Betz to include the proposal on the committee’s agenda next month.
Betz said he would. “I have never excluded an item from the agenda,” he said.
The committee also will discuss at the March 9 meeting separate questions on reducing the size of the 27-member board and moving from districts with three members to districts with either one or two members.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services