EUREKA - As development grows in Woodford County, so does the need for more personnel to monitor zoning-related issues, a majority of the County Board believes.

With a 7-4 vote Tuesday, the County Board voted to scrap a plan that would have eliminated a zoning specialist from the county's tentative fiscal year 2007 budget.

"I think it is sorely needed and has been for quite some time," Zoning Administrator John Hamann said Wednesday.

Hamann said a zoning specialist would be assigned to handle zoning complaints, monitor progress at a developing 79-turbine wind farm near Benson, assign addresses in the rural part of the county for emergency purposes and address issues with property omitted from the county's tax rolls.

The position would pay about $25,000 a year, according to budget estimates.

Currently, Hamann and an assistant are the only personnel within the department.

He said there are too many complaints addressed to his office for two people to deal with, thereby making the new personnel needed.

"We get a complaint every day about someone doing something allegedly wrong," Hamann said. "We feel we have a pressing need to have someone in the field on a more regular basis, especially with the wind farm coming up."

Some board members, however, said Woodford County's growth does not require an additional employee in the Zoning Department.

"We're not McLean County or even Livingston County," board member Pete Lambie said. "Let's slow down; we're going too fast."

Hamann and County Administrator Gregory Jackson said a recent increase in the county's zoning fees has yielded $108,000 extra to the county. As such, Jackson said the new personnel would not be paid by taxpayers, but through the Zoning Department's user fees.

"We're using the fees to bring this person in to help," Jackson said.

John Sharp can be reached at 686-3234 or jsharp@pjstar.com.