CALHOUN NEWS-HERALD
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Clendenens celebrate 50th anniversary. See page A4
NEWS
HARDIN, ILLINOIS 62047
NOVEMBER 20, 2013
Structural issues increase courthouse cost By BOB CROSSEN Calhoun News-Herald After a structural engineer report of the potential Calhoun County courthouse in Hardin, commissioners hope to keep costs low by using local craftsmen for some of the required work. Original estimates of the project presented to the board in September indicated the project could cost a total of $4.25 million including a 20 percent contingency, and with the addition of repairs based on the structural engineer’s report, that total rose to $4.6 million with a 20 percent contingency. The Calhoun County commissioners building and grounds committee met with the architect for the project, Tim Smith, and its owner’s representative, Bernie Loft, during a committee meeting Nov. 12 to discuss the report. Smith said parts of the building were in better condition than he expected, after reading the structural report which outlined four areas of
Veterans Day and CNR. See page A9
concern, including the roof framing, floor framing, exterior walls and the foundation. The architect said when he took his walkthrough of the building his greatest concern was masonry work on the walls which have deteriorated. He said some of the mortar could be wiped away with his finger, and he felt one spot where he thought he could move a brick. “His overall opinion was in good shape,” Smith said. “Where I found it, the mortar was actually getting to be powdery. I felt like I could almost kick a hole through it if I tried hard enough.” According to the report, structural engineer Christopher Whiting, Bacon Farmer Workman Engineering & Testing, Inc., noted the exterior walls of the building were “in good condition for their age.” However, the report states there were a few cracks and locations where the mortar has deteriorated which could be remedied with “selective brick replacement and tuck pointing the mortar joints.”
Rinse
The walls will not perform well during a seismic event, the report adds, but conditioning them to sustain such a situation would not be economically feasible.
“Where I found it, the mortar was actually getting to be powdery. I felt like I could almost kick a hole through it if I tried hard enough.”
Tim Smith Architect The foundation of the building, most of which is sandstone, has deteriorated mortar and the “walls are showing signs of settlement likely due to deterioration,” the report states. Whiting stated in his report the foundation should receive a layer of concrete for stabilization and be underpinned.
Smith said the roof framing, according to the structural report, seems to be in better condition than other parts of the building. He said there are some signs the roof joists may be overstressed by five percent under the current building codes. “That’s pretty minimal to today’s codes,” Smith said, noting the roof would bear the stress it needs for the buildings proposed function. The floor framing, however, would need to be reinforced before people entered the building, the architect said. The report notes the existing floor joists “will be 44 percent overstressed and exceed the allowable deflection limit by 71 percent.” Smith said installing appropriate joists to handle the load would be the best option to fix the issue. Loft said the floor joists are a valid concern to be addressed. “I think that we could beef those joists up unless the bearing point is rotten or deteriorated,” Loft said. “If we think it’s going to be an issue, we can go to a heavier gauge metal stud to support those joists without
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CALHOUN NEWSHERALD • Index • Obituaries . . . . . . A3 Our Town . . . . . A10 News . . . . A6,A9,B2 Public Notice . . . B8 Real Estate . . . B6-7 Correspondence A8 Social . . . . . . . . . A3 Sports . . . . . . . . B10 Obituaries in this issue: Ackerson, Hausmann
© 2013 Calhoun News-Herald
having to replace them.” The commissioners approved a repair to the roof earlier this year after water was found stagnant on the floor of the school after heavy rains. The stagnant water buckled part of the floor, which Smith said was going to be replaced with the courthouse project, and he said during that replacement, reinforcing the floor could be accomplished. The commissioners accepted a $1 million donation from Delford Richter in July to renovate the structure as a new courthouse in dedication to his father, Marvin Richter, who was a prominent figure in the agriculture industry. Smith said he believes the money may not be restricted by the prevailing wage law because it came from a private entity, and State’s Attorney Rick Ringhausen said he would research if that is true. The preliminary estimates of the project were broken into four phases with the first being the completion of the sheriff’s office. The second (See, COURTHOUSE, A2)
Commissioners approve 2014 county tax levy
and repeat
NEWS
NEWS
VOLUME 140 - ISSUE 47
Bob Crossen/Calhoun News-Herald
Allen Johnson washes one of Calhoun Community Unit School District 40's buses Monday afternoon at the car wash in Hardin. The Lady Warriors traveled to Brown County for the team's first game of the season, and Johnson wanted the bus to look nice before making the trip.
By BOB CROSSEN Calhoun News-Herald The Calhoun County Commissioners approved its tax levy for the coming year with an increase of 4.9 percent over last year’s totals. County Clerk Rita Hagen said she could only recommend following the same procedure as last year because of all the changes being made in the assessor’s office after the commissioners appointed Pat Langland to supervisor of assessments in September. “Unfortunately, it’s difficult to figure something on numbers I don’t have,” Hagen said. “She’s still in the process of redoing the whole county.” Langland and her deputies have been reassessing all the property in the county to bring assessments more in line with where they should be and to equalize the assessments for everybody. During a regular meeting Sept. 16, Langland explained to the board that all homes should be assessed at 33.33 percent of their value. Using an example, she said a $50,000 home would have an assessed value of $16,665. However, she said some homes were assessed at a much higher percentage while others were much lower, and using a sales ratio study detail list of 25 homes with figures completed by former assessor Brandi Kieffer, the low end of the spectrum was assessed at 5 percent of the home’s value while the high end was assessed at 137.5 percent. Since that meeting, Langland said her deputies have been a great help in finding new construction in the county and putting it on the tax rolls. Hagen said the assessments for the southern portion of the county have been completed, and the equalized assessed value – or the taxable value of property in the county – of the homes rose by 2.2 percent. “I’m not sure it’s going to stay because you have to go through a board of review process, and I think board of review is going to be lined out the door,” Hagen said. (See, COMMISSONERS, A2)
CUSD school board levy requires truth in taxation hearing By BOB CROSSEN Calhoun News-Herald The Calhoun Community Unit School District 40 annual levy approved during the regular school board meeting Nov. 18 will require a truth in taxation hearing before the next regular meeting in December. In 2012, the board levied $1.9 million in taxes to help pay for school district operations, but only received $1.8 million because the equalized assessed value (EAV) in the district was not as high as predicted. A levy is a request of tax sums, but a district is only issued as much money as the EAV can support. The levy this year is $2.17 million,
and though much of the levy remains the same, some parts of the levy have a higher request than normal, which requires the board to hold a truth in taxation hearing to explain the difference. Though education and tort immunity funds are going higher than the amount allowed before a truth in taxation hearing, Kate Sievers, Unit 40 superintendent, said the tax rate is lower than last year which may help the taxpayers. Last year’s rate was 5.19 and this year the rate is 4.684. “The reason the tax rate went down and the total levy is higher is because our EAV went up a little bit,” Sievers said. According to the certificate of tax
levy approved by the board Monday, education and tort immunity are the two largest portions of the levy with $899,146 and $715,000 requested, respectively. Education covers the salaries of teachers in addition to educational expenses while tort immunity deals mostly with insurance and liability issues. Supervisor of Assessments Pat Langland, who was appointed in September, has been working with her deputies to reevaluate a large number of homes throughout the county in an attempt to bring them all in line with each other and create fairness. Landland has completed those (See, CUSD, A2)
Art guild hosts annual sale Nov. 23 By BOB CROSSEN Calhoun News-Herald The Calhoun Art Guild will host its third annual art sale Nov. 23 and 24 at Stone Bridge Valley Art Center where visitors can purchase works created by local artists in Calhoun County. Michelle Berg-Vogel, art guild member, said the sale will have a variety of artistic pieces including decorative gourds made by Kim Dublo, a Hamburg resident. “It’ll range the whole gamut from jewelry and silk scarves to paintings and wood carvings and of course the gourd art,” Berg-Vogel said, noting some of the gourds, wood carvings and glass will be made into Christmas ornaments.
Berg-Vogel said there will be some new artists this year along with a number of artists who showcased their work during the regular art shows at Stone Bridge Valley north of Michael. She said the sale is scheduled for people to purchase gifts for the holiday season and also eat some Christmas cookies and other treats while speaking to many of the artists at the sale. The Stone Bridge Valley art studio will not be open for artistic activities, but it will be available for a tour to those looking to see what Stone Bridge Valley has to offer. Stone Bridge Valley offers Friday night art gatherings for those interested in meeting artists and creating pieces, and on Saturdays has been offering
classes to school age children to get them interested in artistic expression. Berg-Vogel said the guild has begun planning for next year, during which they hope to have group shows in addition to the group’s annual art sale. She said the guild also intends to get more involved with the kids classes at Stone Bridge Valley Art Center. Artists expressed interest in teaching kids how to make art in their specific media to promote art at young ages. She said specific artists have not been designated for the shows or the classes just yet as the planning is still in its early stages. The Calhoun Art Guild art sale will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 4 p.m. C
K
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St. Mary
Bob Crossen/Calhoun News-Herald
prepared
for steeple installation The steeple for St. Mary Church in Brussels was delivered two weeks ago, and will be shingled before it is placed atop the building where the space is bare and flat. Windows were installed earlier this year, and continued renovations hit snags due to handicap accessiblity issues with the structure. The buiding suffered devastaing fire damage on Christmas Eve 2011 when it was gutted by the flames. The fire started from faulty electrical wiring in the attic and fire fighters were dispatched to the scene twice.