During the board's regular meeting Monday, members approved the disbursement of $32,780 from the county's contingency fund for the software, which is being provided by Platinum Technologies.
According to Effingham County Clerk Michelle Kollmann, the new software includes a web portal that county voters can access through the county's website.
This portal will allow voters to access information such as their registered address, polling location, directions to polling locations, and the status of their vote-by-mail ballots, which she said "really helps with all the concern out there with voting."
"It also has the ability to upload election results on election night, so we can get the results out to the public the night of election," Kollmann said. "And those results will stay on the website as long as we need them to be on there, so this new software has the capabilities to do that where our current software does not."
Kollmann also announced during the meeting that the Effingham County Clerk/Recorder's Office is beginning to utilize additional software software that will allow the public to search and access certain documents and records electronically.
"We went live with this new software last week, so we're adjusting to the new process," Kollmann said. "But this new software allows us to implement the ability for the public to search land records online, the option for our customers to repo their documents electronically and then electronically file the property transfer tax declarations which are known as PTAX forms."
"And the electronic filing process of the PTAX forms will help the assessor's office, also."
Additionally, Kollmann said the new software allows residents to apply for marriage licensees online.
"And soon we'll be finalizing the ability for the public to request certified copies of birth, death and marriage records online also which, currently, we cannot do," Kollmann said. "It's only by phone call."
In other matters, the board approved a resolution to apply for Community Development Block Grant COVID-19 funds for nine county businesses that applied for the Business Resiliency program.
"This grant is being applied for by Effingham County as the lead government entity on behalf of nine businesses," Effingham County Board Chairman Josh Douthit said. "The total amount for the grant is going to be $125,599.36. Of that amount, $114,181 and some change will be going directly back to businesses if approved."
Douthit said the remainder of these grant funds will be given to the South Central Illinois Regional Planning & Development Commission to cover the cost of processing the application and managing the grant for the county.
The board held a public hearing regarding the Business Resiliency program prior to the meeting Monday, during which a representative with the South Central Illinois Regional Planning & Development Commission, Brooke Frederick, was present to discuss the program which is part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
"So this is kind of the last round of COVID funding that anybody's going to see," Frederick said regarding the CARES Act during the hearing.
As county officials provided their monthly reports to the board, Effingham County Sheriff Paul Kuhns announced that inmates held at the Effingham County Jail will soon have increased access to mental health care through a service being provided by Heartland Human Services with the assistance of the Effingham County 708 Mental Health Board.
"We've worked for a long time to get some kind of mental health assistance in our jail," Kuhns said. "So we're going to get about four hours a week of just mental health counseling for the jail where people will be able to sign up just like they would for a doctors call, and this is important to me because it makes for a dangerous work environment a lot of times when we have mental health problems."
Kuhns said these services will be become available for county jail inmates on Oct. 23.
Meanwhile, Effingham County State's Attorney Aaron Jones provided an update on Illinois' SAFE-Act nearly a month after a provision of the statute ending cash bail was implemented.
Jones said the state's judges and legislators are still working to clear up any confusion surrounding the new law and how it should be implemented.
"There's still a lot of questions that still remain," Jones said. "And it's going to be a lot of situational solutions which doesn't really help us."
He also said the number of inmates in the Effingham County Jail has decreased since the end of cash bail.
"We're just not having a whole lot of people that are being cited for things that they can take them in on at this point," Jones said.
Also during the meeting, the board approved a proclamation declaring Nov. 13-16 to be National Apprenticeship Week in Effingham County.
Douthit read the proclamation which states that apprenticeship is recognized by the county as a "key strategy to improving job quality and creating access to good-paying, family-sustaining jobs for all."
Meanwhile, the newly appointed program compliance oversight monitor for Effingham County, Kelly Lockhart, introduced himself to members of the board.
The board appointed Lockhart to the position Monday to replace the county's former program compliance oversight monitor, Phil Toops.
"I've actually been a PCOM in Coles County for the past ten years," Lockhart said. "I've been doing transportation related items for about 15. I'm happy to be here."
In other matters, the board voted to approve the modification of the Effingham County Ambulance Oversight Committee schedule to make meetings bimonthly, rather than quarterly.
© 2023 the Effingham Daily News (Effingham, Ill.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
