RENOVATION PROJECT Overhaul of former county jail nears end

Officials say they saved more than $1 million by doing the work in-house.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- What can you do with a vacant six-story, 50-year-old building filled with empty jail cells?
When Mahoning County commissioners found themselves in that situation, they decided to gut the building and turn it into office space. The project started in 1997 and is finally nearing completion.
"We're getting there," said Richard Malagisi, county facilities manager. "It's taken a long time, but we're almost done."
The county facilities crew is putting the finishing touches on an overhaul of the fourth floor of the former county jail on Boardman Street. The auditor's geographic information system, data processing and other support staff are expected to move there soon from the courthouse.
The first floor, already partially finished, is next on the renovation list and will eventually house the county's victim/witness office and a grand jury room. A new hearing room for commissioners also will be built there, allowing them to move out of their current hearing room in the courthouse basement.
Malagisi said that project will be finished later this year.
That will leave only the fifth floor to finish, and Malagisi said it should be done sometime next year. The prosecutor's delinquent tax collection staff and the county's microfilm and purchasing departments will set up shop there, and there will be a storage area for the clerk of courts. The other floors of the building are already occupied.
Cost
Malagisi said the overhaul has cost about $1.1 million so far, which commissioners borrowed to pay for the renovation. He estimated that the cost would have been at least twice that amount if private contractors had been hired.
Contractors were hired to do the heating and ventilation work and to upgrade the main elevator, but the rest has been done by county employees, Malagisi said.
Commissioner David Ludt said relocating offices and staff to the administration building has helped relieve overcrowding in the courthouse, where a shortage of space has long been a problem.
After the county opened its new jail on Fifth Avenue in 1996, the old jail on Boardman Street was left unoccupied. Because it sits directly behind the courthouse, commissioners considered using it as a storage building, but decided that would be a waste of space.
Instead, they set about demolishing the inside, converting cell ranges to office complexes for county staff.
At the time, the courthouse was strapped for space and commissioners were looking into buying the former Youngstown city hall annex, which they would have renovated and used to hold county offices.
Malagisi said he approached commissioners about converting the vacant jail building instead.
"I think the [jail] building was kind of forgotten about, to be honest," Malagisi said.
Relocation
Commissioners were the first to relocate to the building in 1997, moving out of their old digs in the courthouse basement to new quarters on the second floor of the old jail, which now is called the administration building. Other offices under commissioners' authority soon followed, occupying space on the first, second and third floors of the old jail.
The top three floors, filled with empty jail cells where inmates once were held, had to be removed.
"We took 135 tons of cells and [concrete] block out of here," Malagisi said. "That was all done by hand with sledgehammers and wheelbarrows."
Once those floors were gutted, the renovation continued.
Today, the top floor is occupied by the prosecutor's office, the third floor is primarily for the 911 department and the second floor is occupied by commissioners and their staff.
Malagisi said the facilities staff has a woodworking shop at the county annex on Market Street, where it has built desks, conference tables and other furniture for the administration building.
bjackson@vindy.com