Education board seeks new location for office

The board rents office space in a county-owned building.
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Educational Service Center Governing Board is looking for new office space it might move into next year.
The ESC's governing board voted this week to hire Baker, Bednar & amp; Associates Inc. of Warren as its architectural consultant concerning possible new office locations it might lease.
ESC officials will be touring some potential new quarters over the next several weeks, and any move would occur late next summer, said Superintendent Anthony D'Ambrosio.
The board rents 27,000 square feet of office space for $30,000 a year in a county-owned building at 347 N. Park Ave. ESC pays for cleaning of its space but not for utilities, he said.
"This is an older building, and some components may break and may not be replaceable, so we need to look for an alternative location," D'Ambrosio said. The building's heating system is "antiquated," he said.
"In lieu of having to look for an alternative location overnight, we would prefer to take our time and see what's out there,'' he said. Under state law, the county commissioners won't be required to provide quarters for ESC after this year, he noted.
Requirements
In potential new quarters, ESC wants to rent about 22,000 square feet, he said. The space needs would be reduced from the current amount because ESC may move its alternative school to one of its member school districts, D'Ambrosio explained. ESC doesn't have the money to build a new building, he added.
ESC is conducting its search as county commissioners prepare to decide where to move the Job and Family Services office and whether the new JFS location would have enough space to house ESC.
"We're still not going to make the decision [on office quarters] until after we find out what the commissioners are going to do," D'Ambrosio said.
A real estate firm has given ESC a list of possible new office locations, all privately owned, D'Ambrosio said. "We're just looking. We're just trying to cover ourselves just in case something happens and we have to find our own alternative location," he concluded.