On July 25th, 2020 at approximately 2:30 a.m., Benton Police arrested Victor Troyan, age 58, of Benton for unlawful failure to register as a sex offender.

Troyan was charged and transported to the Franklin County Jail for further processing.

On July 26th, 2020 at approximately 11:40 p.m., Benton Police arrested Joshua L. Craig, age 31, of West Frankfort on an active Franklin County warrant for failure to appear.

Craig was transported to the Franklin County Jail for further processing.

On July 29th, 2020 at approximately 4 p.m., Benton Police were dispatched to the 400 block of East Bond Street in reference to a suspicious person.

Upon investigating, police arrested Laura A. Kastner, age 34, of Benton for theft, aggravated assault, and resisting a peace officer.

Kastner was charged and transported to the Franklin County Jail for further processing.

During action at a special meeting on Thursday, July 30, 2020, the Franklin County Board moved closer to the reality of a new courthouse when six very competitive construction bids were submitted.

The primary item on the afternoon agenda was to open the sealed bids that were picked up beginning July 1, 2020. The six bids were read aloud to the large crowd on hand for the historic event.

ICF Construction, of St. Louis, was the low bidder with a bid of $12,432,000. ICF estimated in the bid specs that it would take 500 calendar days to complete the construction with a starting date of Sept. 1, 2020.
Other bidding on the construction of the 46,000-square-foot, three-story structure included:

Fager-McGhee Construction, of Murphysboro, IL, was the next low bidder with a price of $12,515,000 and an estimated completion time of 510 days.

KNS Associates, of St. Louis, was next with a bid of $13,195,000 and a completion time of 700 days.

River City Construction Co., of Benton, IL, was fourth with a bid of $13,303,000 and a completion time of 510 days.

Poettker Construction Co., of Breese, IL, was next with a bid $13,504,000 and a completion time of 520 days.

And rounding out the bidders was Grunloh Construction Co., of Effingham, IL, with a bid of $14,529,000 and a completion time of 520 days. An important note is that five of the six bids came in below the $13.8 million dollars that has been budgeted by the county board for construction of the new courthouse.

The county board will now cut the number down to the top two or three bidders and begin an interview process on August 5, 2020 before making a final decision on the successful low, responsible bidder at the August 18 board meeting. Construction is set to begin on September 1, 2020.

In other pertinent information for county residents to know concerning the demolition of the 145-year-old courthouse, concrete barriers will be set on the inside perimeter of the Public Square on Friday, July 31, 2020. The placement of the barriers will eliminate all parking on the inside of the Public Square until the project is completed in approximately 18 months.
Demolition is set to begin on the courthouse on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. The demolition and cleanup is expected to take less than two weeks.

County officials, including judges, elected officials, county employees and board members are continuing to meet with project managers, architects and engineers via teleconference twice monthly going over construction plans and other intricate details in preparation for construction of the three-story courthouse that is expected to be completed in late December 2021.