At the Dec. 17 meeting of the McDonough County Board, three individuals were reappointed to the McDonough District Hospital Board (MDH Board), and a new Board member was appointed to fill a vacancy.
Kathy Neumann, Seth Minter and Wanda Foster were re-appointed to three-year terms to the MDH Board. Roger Ward was appointed to replace longtime Board member Terra Litchfield, who was first elected in 2018. Litchfield, who said she had been thinking about resigning from her post, noted that everything fell into place recently with Ward’s willingness to step forward to fill her spot representing County Board District #3.
“It has been an honor and I’ve enjoyed working with the County Board,” Litchfield said. “For the most part, I think we’re better off now than when I first came in.”
In addition, Curt Meyers was appointed to the Board of Review to fill the vacancy left due to Jack Lowderman’s resignation.
In other business, the Board approved 27 polling locations; a nonbinding resolution for children’s education; a resolution to replace a culvert on County Highway 26 over Camp Creek using bridge funds at a cost of $21,000; and a resolution to replace the Star Bridge over Camp Creek at a cost of $2.5 million. A federal matching grant will be used for the construction inspection.
The nonbinding resolution, which will be on the March ballot, asks the “yes” or “no” question: “Should Illinois opt into a federal program that would provide public K-12, private school and homeschool students with privately-donated funding for academic needs, such as tutoring and test preparation, educational therapies for students with disabilities, books, exam fees or for other specified academic needs?”
The Board also heard reports from county committees. The Law & Legal Committee will be changing ordinance language related to solar programs when new state legislation is passed on wind, solar and energy storage. The Finance Committee heard from Treasurer Dana Moon and Clerk Jeremy Benson regarding the need for new accounting software. To date, two quotes have been received. In addition, the Finance Committee discussed future updates to the county’s public safety radio system.
In November, the public defender’s office had 587 open cases, 48 closed cases and 35 assigned cases, including 10 felonies. Sales tax collected in September 2025 totaled $404,044.70.
