Following what turned out to be a 50 minute public hearing for truth in taxation, county board members moved on to their regular meeting. Among the topics discussed and moved on besides approval of the fiscal year 2026 budget, appropriations, and tax levy were presentations without action on county healthcare and flock cameras. The county opted to table both of those items after presentations. On the healthcare front, leaders decided they wanted to look over additional options. On the flock cameras, the board wanted to review the contract. Sheriff Jordan Weiss says he would use anti-crime money for the purchase which is expected to cost $18,000 to $24,000 per year depending on how many cameras the board decides to authorize.
We plan on using Anti-Crime money for that. Anti-Crime money comes from fines and fees in the courts from the criminals. So criminals will pay for the cameras.
One item from the consent agenda got removed for further discussion; County Clerk Kayci Heil’s moving of Carmi precinct voting from the floral hall to the First Christian Church. Board member David South who was instrumental in helping the White County Ag Society procure its liquor license for the 2025 fair asked…
South: Why? We don’t know that the fairgrounds is going to do anything yet.
Amanda Cannon: What is going on with that? Where do we stand?
Heil: I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything. I was just going to go ahead and get First Christian Church…move them there. It’s a little bit better facility right now. Our election judges are older. It gets kind of drafty out there. The doors don’t stay shut. They’re out there from 5:30 in the morning until whenever we leave. I just was gonna go ahead and move them. I don’t want to get too far down the road and something happen. We have to find people a place to vote.
The election is scheduled for March 17th, 2026. South said he wanted to table to venue change to keep a separation of church and state. Voting was held at the New Beginnings Church prior to moving to the floral hall. He said he knew there was a fair board meeting in December and said he wanted to wait until after that to see whether voting needed to be moved. The board acquiesced.
There was also discussion about approving the new Fraternal Order of Police contract. Former Sheriff Randy Graves said there had been a lot of rumors going around about the contract. He asked how much of a raise was worked into the 3 year agreement.
Cassie Pigg: So December 1st, 2025 8%, 8% December 1st, 26, and 8% December 1st, 27.
Graves: So a 24% raise over 3 years?
The board approved that contract with Ken Usery the lone no vote.
Other big news out of the board meeting, the Absher Foundation made a $659,000 donation to the White County Ambulance Service with $532,800 of that being used to purchase two new ambulances. White County EMA also received donations totaling $5,700 for equipment. Those came from Slay’s Restoration, Gary Cates, and Little Giant.
The board recessed into executive session at 9:08pm where they remained for just under half an hour with no action to follow. The next White County Board meeting is scheduled for 7pm on December 17th.