The White County Board meeting began with Chairwoman Cassie Pigg’s resignation. Pigg said the decision was due to professional and personal demands and agreed to serve in an interim capacity until a replacement is named.
“I would just like to thank you guys. It’s been an honor to serve alongside you. It’s been an honor to serve the county. And this decision was definitely not something that was made lightly, but unfortunately, due to professional and personal demands, I need to do this.”
Cassie Pigg has served as White County Board Chairwoman since 2020. The board members unanimously accepted her resignation, elected Amanda Sutton Cannon to fill the seat, and chose David South to serve as Vice Chair.
With Cannon taking her place at the helm, the board meeting continued on. Treasurer Mike Baxley presented the county auditors’ findings to the board for the year ending November 2025. In the recap, the county’s cash balance decreased by 13% from the prior year, while governmental activities increased by 33% due to higher highway and street expenses incurred during the year. Revenue for the board increased 7%, driven by increases in the motor fuel tax, income from solar farms, sales, income tax, and cannabis use tax.
During public comments, Tiffany James has been dealing with the solar farms surrounding her house for years and has diligently tried for the past 9 months to get help from the board and State’s Attorney Chris Neal.
The company, Ameren, has planted the required number of trees under the ordinance, but it is not providing the required screening. State’s Attorney Chris Neal stated that he has emailed individuals within the company and their attorney, but has not heard anything for three months. Sheriff Jordan Weiss stated that he has action prepared if needed, but needs clearance.
“Ameren is a billion-dollar company; these citations, they’ll either pay them, and they continue to violate the ordinance, or they’re just going to throw them away. I think the best course of action to get some attention is to sue them; they are in breach of a contract.”
Chairwoman Cannon advised issuing a citation to Ameren for now.
Moving on, the consent agenda was approved, with further discussion on the VET Environmental bill of $1,377.20. In the end, the board approved the payment.
Other approvals during the meeting included the renewals of the Springerton American Legion Liquor License and the Enfield Sportsman’s Club Liquor License. The Sheriff’s ordinance fee was accepted, as well as an intergovernmental agreement with the Egyptian Health Department for tuberculosis services.
Sheriff Weiss brought to the board’s attention that more money will be needed to replace the courthouse windows. During their May meeting, the board approved the spending of $51,264 to replace the 37 windows. Now, it will cost around $5,000 more due to adding two additional windows for the Circuit Clerk’s office (the window frames already exist, the windows themselves were taken out and filled in years ago) and including a triple-paned picture window, since double-pane won’t help with noise canceling.
The meeting concluded with a discussion about the drone building, which needs to be repaired or sold. Unfortunately, the building holds records that, under state law, must be kept. The County does not have any spare buildings or rooms to move all departmental records into, so the board tabled that item until next month to develop a plan to utilize the space and information involved.
The next White County Board meeting will be held on July 14 at 7 pm.