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New Tazewell County Board chair Grimm strives to get members ‘moving in the same direction’

Tazewell County Board Chairman Brett Grimm in front of the station banner in the WCBU master studio.
Joe Deacon
/
WCBU
Tazewell County Board Chairman Brett Grimm poses in front of the station banner in the WCBU master studio.

Brett Grimm is only a few weeks into his new role as chairman of the Tazewell County Board, adapting to the requirements of the position.

In following longtime chairman David Zimmerman, the former county auditor is eager to guide Tazewell County in the years ahead, but Grimm says he's not going to rush into making major changes.

“It's been under the same person for 15 years, and everything has moved along pretty efficiently, pretty well done,” Grimm said in an interview with WCBU. “I'm not the person who likes to just jump right in and make a whole lot of changes without the understanding of ‘why.’

“So what we're going to do is we're going to look at bringing in an outside strategic plan, and (have) somebody come in and kind of help us to be able to transition to the ideas and the plans that had been on the board before, to where things are going forward — so that we can get 21 people moving in the same direction and all understanding and buying in on what those should be.”

Grimm said in addition to himself, the makeup of the board includes several members who’ve been serving for less than a year.

“Everybody's just trying to catch up to speed. So I figured coming together with a good blueprint of how to do that moving forward and getting 21 people on the same page would probably be a great place to start,” he said.

Before becoming county auditor in 2020, Grimm spent nearly 10 years as a Tazewell County Board member. That prepared him for his new role as chairman, but only to an extent, he said.

“I’ve got a good idea of what’s going on with the issues. Things are a little bit different in this seat, as far as the ‘why’s,’ said Grimm. “You see a lot more of the things that have filtered down before it goes to the board — not filtered to keep things away, but just because of the noise of it. So, I'm getting to see a lot more of that, and trying to understand where things go and why they were done.”

Grimm has inherited oversight of plans for Tazewell County's new Justice Center Annex in downtown Pekin. In the final meeting before he became chairman, the county board set a guaranteed maximum price of $41 million for the long sought project.

Some uncertainty remains with the project, Grimm said, but he's bound by that agreement.

“Well, they locked it in. So it's kind of one of those things that they're continuing to work on prints and engineering proposals,” he said. “At the time they had done it, they'd only had 30% of actual drawings completed.

“So none of them have gone out for bid, none of them have done anything. So, they've basically locked in a $41 million project without an idea of what they're going to get just yet. I think we’ll just see what happens in the next couple of months, how it unfolds and where things go.”

Grimm admits the annex is needed, adding it's not fair to say locking in the maximum price was the wrong move.

“I don’t think that’s fair. There had been a board that was working very hard to get that done; they hadn't been able to get it done for 2½ -3 years,” he said. “I think that it was given a timetable to make sure that it was done before I was there, in case I came in with a different idea and different plan, without really talking to me or understanding that it's like, ‘We’re all on the same page.’”

Grimm said he's disappointed the board committed to the expense of the justice annex without having a clearer picture, and without considering the costs the county may face to address existing facilities that are in need of repair.

“I sat as property committee chair for quite a while, and we've needed a new building; we've needed some other things,” said Grimm. “I think that in that, they missed a whole lot of things that should be done. Everybody saw the bright new shiny building, and they forgot to look at the existing ones that tend to be crumbling, or that kind of look like in an ’80s or ’90s garage sale with parts and pieces around, and how they should maybe fix that.

“They just locked in on how to spend a whole lot of money without looking at the things that need to be done. It's on them to know that they've got this much money here, so that they don't have to make cuts or change orders. The whole process was just not done that way, so that's probably been my biggest source of contention.”

Still, Grimm said it's now his responsibility to see the annex project through to completion.

“The board voted. The construction firm, the architects, they’re great people; they are doing a great job of trying to do what was in that contract,” he said. “I think at this point, it's on us — and more specifically on me — to really figure out what is going on in those other costs that I can make sure that the board is aware of.

“They saw a lot of things that were leaning and biased one way without seeing the other. So, it's on me to figure out how to make sure that they see that other. And when it comes time to start the construction or gets at some of those points, you know, we'll see what happens.”

Beyond the justice center annex, Grimm said one of his main objectives will be to keep Tazewell County in a strong financial position.

“To operate a county, we've got the fourth lowest tax rate in the state, out of 102 counties,” said Grimm. “It's kind of hard to get to three, two, and to the lowest, while still providing the services that we do. So, we're very well run; we're effective, and it's kind of hard to say how I would improve on that.”

Grimm said he already has strong relationships with many of the board members.

“It's just figuring out everybody's plan going forward, consolidating, get everybody together in an agreement, and then move forward,” he said. “If we're a thundering herd moving down the prairie, we can be pretty effective. But if we're instead just all scattered in different directions, we're not going to be nearly. So, we need to work on just becoming that thundering herd.”

Grimm said he would need to consider his position on renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar farms, on a case-by-case basis.

In August, the county board turned down a special use request for a five megawatt solar farm over 52 acres just west of Morton, in spite of a 2023 state law that blocks local governments from limiting or banning solar and wind farms.

Joe Deacon is a reporter at WCBU and WGLT. Contact Joe at jdeacon@ilstu.edu.