State of the County

Six Logan County officials provided updates to assorted issues, including a possible courthouse remodel and some road repairs, during the Oct. 10 Guthrie Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Meridian Technology Center in Guthrie.

District 2 Commissioner Charlie Meadows, Emergency Manager Steve Haga, County Clerk Troy Cole, Sheriff Damon Devereaux, Treasurer Sherri Longnecker and Assistant District Attorney JR Kalka all spoke to Chamber members.

Meadows’ discussion centered around plans for the courthouse. Although still in the discussion stage, commissioners are looking at buying the DHS building on Division Street that is no longer in use and move the clerk, treasurer and commissioner’s office, and the assessor to that building.

DHS would keep a temporary office until a regional office in Stillwater is located. The asking price is approximately $2.1 million for the school land that had been assessed at $500,000, and commissioners would like to buy the property rather than lease.

The courthouse would then get a very large-scale remodel that would add two medium-sized courtrooms and two jury rooms to handle the current volume. The present jury room is not ADA accessible

See STATE OF THE COUNTY on page _ and takes visitors up and down old winding stairs. The courthouse remodel would cost about $2.1 million and Meadows hopes to use ARPA funds (COVID funds, currently at $6.5 million) to fill that bill.

“We have outgrown the current courthouse,” he said. “We met with Judge Phillip Corley and Cheryl Smith on ideas for the remodel with the architects a couple of weeks ago and worked on multiple ideas.”

The other issue Meadows discussed was road repairs to include Post, Westminster and College streets, as well as the road out to Lazy E, where the arena is active more than 200 days a year with events.

“I do not want a tax increase and would like to set up a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district to pay for the road repairs,” Meadows said.

Pine to I-35 and a grant to fix Industrial are all in early discussion stages.

The sales tax election that funds the jail, roads and fire departments, as well as new fire truck purchases, will be up for renewal in 2024 and Meadows would like to see it extended out to 15 years. The tax is broken down to 25% to the commissioners, 25% for Logan County Detention Center operations, 25% to the volunteer fire department in the county (there are 15 of them), and 25% for the roads.

Cole, in her fourth term as Clerk, started working with the office in 1996 before being elected in 2009. All of the county records are her responsibility and have been digitalized. In 2022, the office handled 14,699 various instruments and 69,000 pages of documents, she said. In addition, she handles human resource issues for 160 county employees.

Longnecker has been in the Treasurer’s office since 2007. She said the office is currently working on past-due tax bills from 2020 that will go up for auction in 2024 if not brought up to date. Protest taxes from 2021 and 2022 are at $115,784 and she hopes to have them resolved shortly. New tax bills, ore than 35,000, will be mailed out soon. Payments are due by Dec. 31 and March 31. Longnecker said the easiest way is to pay online.

Haga wears multiple hats as the Emergency Manager and is still working on the March wildfire issues with FEMA. The flood plain is another project currently under review. Haga also works closely with the volunteer fire departments, the sheriff’s office and first responders.

Kalka talked about the courthouse renovations, as well as prioritizing court cases to reduce the backlog on criminal cases and having an attorney on retainer to deal with civil issues for the county. Kalka has been the Assistant District Attorney for two years and has handled several of the major felony cases in the past year with great success and convictions.

Sheriff Devereaux, who has been in office since 2017, said his deputies cover 710 square miles in the county. The detention center has 198 beds and currently has 138 inmates. The jail is also used to house inmates for the U.S. Marshall’s Service and Canadian County.

Devereaux spoke about the quarter-cent sales tax that funds the detention center. There are currently 26 employees in the center and another 40 staff members in the patrol division, and approximately $250,000 a year is spent on food service and healthcare there. Current projects being looked at include a new roof and boiler system.