OREGON — At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the Ogle County Board voted unanimously to approve a $98,300 bid from Martin & Company Excavating of Oregon to demolish the old Ogle County Jail. The county received seven other bids for the work.
The county board also unanimously approved the use of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for the demolition. Bids for the demolition work ranged up to $432,500. The county recently moved its jail operations into the newly-constructed Ogle County Judicial Center.
Ogle County Engineer Jeremy Ciesiel spoke at the meeting and has been working on the demolition project. He said he was pleased with the number of bids received and hopes the demolition will start in November.
“We’re still working on some of the utility disconnects currently,” Ciesiel said. That needs to be taken care of before demolition would start. Our hope is to get demolition completed before the end of the year. Paperwork and utility work must be done before we can get started.”
Board members also heard an update from a representative from Stateline Solar on the installation of solar panels on top of the new Ogle County Judicial Center. Panel installation completion is slated for the end of October and the contractor is currently waiting on inverters to finish the project and some supply chain issues have been seen.
SAFE-T
The county board voted 20-1 during the meeting to support the repeal of the SAFE-T Act.
Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock and Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle recently announced that they have filed a complaint against Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in Ogle County Circuit Court seeking to have the criminal justice reform SAFE-T Act declared unconstitutional.
The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act passed in the early hours of Jan. 13, 2021. It abolishes cash bail beginning in Jan. 1, 2023, reforms police training, certification and use-of-force standards, expands detainee rights and requires body cameras at all departments by 2025. The legislation has been amended twice since its passing to accommodate concerns of law enforcement groups and changes have included moving effective dates back and use-of-force language.
VanVickle and Rock have been outspoken against the SAFE-T Act and outlined their concerns to the board on Tuesday.
“I think it’s a great thing for our county to let the current governor know how this county feels,” Rock said. “We filed a complaint asking for injunctive relief against the imposition of this act on our county. It’s in litigation now. Hopefully they’ll come to the table and talk about it. Because sheriffs and state’s attorneys attempted to negotiate and were ignored.”
Rock said the complaints against the act will see litigation on Nov. 22 in Kankakee County. He and VanVickle do not expect the issue to be resolved by the time the law takes effect Jan. 1, 2023.
VanVickle said 102 sheriffs in the state have made it known that they’re against the act and Rock said 54 county state’s attorneys are officially against the SAFE-T Act.
VanVickle serves as the immediate past president of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association and has spent time testifying in Springfield regarding the act and said the ISA continues to work with the legislature on concerns about the SAFE-T Act.
“It’s gotten to the point with the bail reform that there have been no meaningful changes,” VanVickle said. “That deadline of Jan. 1 is quickly approaching and there’s a lot of legwork we have to do from the law enforcement side of it such as implementation and policies.”
Human resources
The board voted 20-1 Tuesday to appoint Ashley Rippentrop as Ogle County human resource director. Her contract runs for three years and she will be paid $75,000 in the first year. Her official hire date is Oct. 31.
ARPA
Outside of the jail demolition, the board approved a number of county ARPA funding resolutions including $20,450 for the Village of Forreston for a village hall remodel and evidence storage. $7,872 was authorized for the sheriff’s office for AT&T routers for squad cars.
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