MAHONING COUNTY Officials plan to lease space to store agency's records

Records will be stored at a former bowling alley location.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The eventual goal is to bring Mahoning County's Department of Job and Family Services' human services and child support enforcement divisions under one roof.
Because county officials don't know when that will happen, they are moving ahead with plans to lease additional space at the McGuffey Plaza on North Garland Avenue, where the agency's human services division is located, to house the agency's paper records. The records are now kept in cramped human services office space.
County commissioners approved a month-to-month lease today for 26,875 square feet of additional space at a monthly cost of $7,276. The space, at a former bowling alley next to the human services division, will be used to house paper records the agency is required to maintain by law, said county Administrator Gary Kubic.
By moving the records next door, there will be more room for office space at the human services division, which handles the county's welfare program.
The county currently pays $30,187 a month for 67,504 square feet of space at the McGuffey Plaza on the East Side, owned by the Cafaro Co., Kubic said.
Consolidation
The county wants to eventually consolidate the human services division and its Child Support Enforcement Agency, which has a month-to-month $33,595 lease for about 40,000 square feet of space at the Erie Terminal building on Commerce Street in downtown, Kubic said.
"We have month-to-month leases to give us some flexibility," he said.
The county has looked twice in the past four years for a building to house DJFS, but didn't follow through either time.
In 2001, plans to seek bids for a consolidated office were canceled because county commissioners weren't pleased with the direction the project seemed to be taking in prebid meetings.
In 1999, bids were sought, but the project was canceled because there were concerns that a state initiative would have required the county to include the local Ohio Bureau of Employment Services office in the relocation plan -- something county officials weren't prepared to do.
A consolidation will hopefully happen this year, county officials say.
Consolidation will save money, primarily through paying less rent, and will make it easier to meet clients' needs because all the agency's services will be in one location, county officials say.
skolnick@vindy.com