February 22, 2012
Illinois

Woodford board reschedules meeting

By NICK VLAHOS, of the Journal Star, www.pjstar.com 21 February 2012

EUREKA – The mystery of the missing Woodford County Board meeting agenda has yet to be solved.

But a new time and date have been established for the regular board meeting postponed Tuesday because of the missing agenda. The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Board Chairman Stan Glazier said Tuesday.

The location still is in doubt, however. Because a large crowd is expected, the meeting might be moved to Cerf Center at Eureka College, Glazier said. The board is expected to vote on whether to implement revisions to a county ordinance that regulates wind-energy systems.

“Wind issues bring out people by the dozens and dozens,” Glazier said.

The board’s usual meeting room can hold about 130 people. A site decision might be forthcoming Wednesday, Glazier said.

The rescheduled meeting had been planned for Feb. 28, Glazier said, but the Woodford County Zoning Board of Appeals is among area groups scheduled to convene that night.

The County Board meeting had to be postponed because the agenda was not posted at the door of the meeting room at least 48 hours in advance, in accordance with state law. But board assistant Debbie Ulrich said she posted the agenda between 4:15 and 5 p.m. Friday.

“All I know is, I posted it,” she said Tuesday.

Ulrich said she was unaware of any problems with the agenda until she received calls Monday from board members. Like many county employees, Ulrich didn’t work Monday because of the Presidents Day holiday, so she drove to the meeting room to see if the agenda was in place.

It wasn’t.

“I even opened the door in case it got blown over,” said Ulrich, who also said an agenda copy she posted in the county courthouse vestibule was missing, too.

Usually, Ulrich also emails the agenda to board members and media. She said she did so Friday, but when she returned to work Tuesday, the email was stuck in her account’s outbox. Ulrich said her computer and others in the courthouse have been malfunctioning recently.

“I know what I did. I’ve been doing it for quite a few years,” she said. “For this to happen is just hard to swallow. If I didn’t post it, I’d be up front and say I didn’t, but I know I did. That’s the aggravating part of it.

“This is very hard for me. I feel really bad about it.”

The Woodford County Sheriff’s Department is checking security-camera recordings, but not all of them have been reviewed, Glazier said.

“If someone removed them, I’d certainly like to know,” he said about the agendas. “There are just too many unknowns.”

Ulrich knows what she’ll do when it’s time to post the agenda for Monday’s meeting.

“I’m going to make sure somebody watches me walk over and do it,” said Ulrich, who plans to do that Thursday. “I hate to do it, but I want to let people know I’m doing it.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/02/22/woodford-board-reschedules-meeting/