COLUMBIANA COUNTY Officials seek funding for elevator to turn second floor into office

The recently purchased building will house a law library.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County officials want to get more use out of a recently purchased building by installing an elevator in the two-story structure.
The problem is, they're about $20,000 short of the amount needed to install the device, Commissioner Jim Hoppel said.
Total price of an elevator for the former Consumer's Bank Building on Market Street is about $100,000.
Hoppel said he's hopeful the lift can be installed by early 2004.
"The sooner we can get that elevator in there, the better off we are," Hoppel said.
County officials want to use the second floor for a public office. But the space must be served by an elevator to ensure people with disabilities can reach it.
Officials have scraped together about $80,000, with $50,000 coming from federal grant funds and another $30,000 from the court budget.
The county may have to raid the general fund for the remainder, Hoppel said.
Law library
The aim in buying the 8,500-square-foot former bank building this spring was to establish a new law library on its first floor.
A court fund fueled with fines and costs from criminal cases, plus a $41,000 contribution from the county bar association, paid for the $206,000 purchase.
The county has a legal responsibility to provide a law library for use by county judges and attorneys. The facility is not open to the public.
The library's former location in the basement courthouse had to be abandoned because it was not large enough.
Plans call for moving the sheriff department's courthouse office into that space.
A title company occupied the second floor of the bank building when the structure was purchased, but the business has since vacated the building, Hoppel said.
Commissioners are still uncertain which public agency they want to move into the second floor once an elevator is in place.
One candidate is part of the county job and family services department. The agency is now housed in a decrepit county-owned structure off Market Street.
The space is overcrowded, prompting the thought to move part of the operation to the former bank.
leigh@vindy.com