At Wednesday's McDonough County Board meeting, the Board unanimously approved the installation of a statue of Abraham Lincoln on the southwest side of the McDonough County Courthouse.
The new monument, which will be added to the county's 'Looking for Lincoln' self-guided tour, will be unveiled July 4. 'Visit Unforgettable Forgottonia' (dba the Macomb Convention and Visitors Bureau - MACVB) obtained an Illinois Humanities Council grant tied to America's 250th anniversary to pay for the creation and installation. A life-size mold of Lincoln was found at Architectural Artifacts in Chicago, which will be used to create the concrete Lincoln statue that will be installed on the southwest corner of the Courthouse, near the exact spot Lincoln spoke in the pouring rain in 1858 when he was stumping for the senate against Stephen Douglas for senate. The $15,000 grant will pay for the statue, which is being created by Western Illinois University Art Professor Duke Oursler. The mold, which was created in the 1960s by an unknown artist, is of the 'Illinois Lincoln,' meaning it features Lincoln without his beard.
The Board also referred back to the Road & Bridge Committee the request from the MACVB to install signs at the main entrances of the county designating McDonough County as a Lincoln Heritage Area. It was determined that additional work must first be completed with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) before the full Board can approve the request.
In other business, the Board unanimously approved an upgrade to the county's financial management software. County Clerk Jeremy Benson solicit bids for the new system, with proposals due March 23. The selected/recommended bid will move forward to the full board for approval. The County has been using Harris for much of its business for many years, and has the need to invest in an updated, cloud-based system. As reported at a previous finance board meeting, the new system will cost significantly more than the system currently in place.
Chad Sperry of the GIS Center based at Western Illinois University also presented to the full board Wednesday evening. The GIS Center, which was established in the mid-1990s, works closely with Illinois' statewide 911 system to lead the state's 911 modernization effort to streamline processes for a Next Generation 911 (NG9-1-1) system. The project's main focus has been on creating an up-to-date state map comprised of numerous GIS layers. GIS maps and data provide essential details about roads, addresses and jurisdictional boundaries for accurate emergency call routing and location validation. The WIU GIS Center works with nearly 30 of Illinois' 102 counties on their 911 mapping programs, including McDonough County. Counties pay for upkeep of the system, with grants helping to cover some of the costs, along with surcharges from landlines and cell phones. The center also maps out schools across Illinois so first responders have the lay of the land when addressing an emergency, and has provided mapping and GIS services during natural disasters, the pandemic and missing persons cases.
The next meeting of the McDonough County Board is set for 7 p.m., March 18.
