TRUMBULL COUNTY Family services location awaits selection

'We probably started this too late,' a commissioner said of the site search.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The 250 employees at the Trumbull County "One Stop" combination of county services -- and their clients -- will have to wait longer to find out where their job site will be located.
County commissioners had an executive session Thursday to discuss the seven proposed sites but came back without announcing a selection.
The eventual location will house a "One-Stop" combination of the Department of Job & amp; Family Services and the Child Support Enforcement Agency.
The selection of a site is needed because the county's lease with Kleese Development for the current Job & amp; Family Services locations at 150 S. Park Ave. and 147 W. Market St. expires at the end of this year. The county's CSEA is now at 106 High St. N.W. in the county-owned Stone Building.
Last month, after receiving a barrage of lobbying from representatives of the seven sites being considered, commissioners held a meeting to allow all to put their proposals on record.
Commissioner James Tsagaris said he believes the commissioners should wait for another recommendation from the Workforce Investment Board before making their decision. Last month, that advisory board said it needed data from the county auditor's office showing updated figures from the seven proposals. It could then see whether its former recommendation for a site needs modified.
Narrowing down options
Tsagaris said there are also too many questions that need answered for the commissioners to pick a site. He said he has narrowed down his choices to three or four proposals.
"We probably started this too late," Tsagaris said of the site selection process. "We should have done quicker work."
He said it is already too late to get the One Stop facility moved into a new building by the time the current lease expires, adding he doesn't know what the effect of that will be.
Commissioner Paul Heltzel said it is a "pretty difficult process" to sift through the seven proposals. For one thing, the financial impact of reduced-price electricity for the two sites in Niles is still not clear.
Sites in Niles being considered are the former Carlisle's store in the Village Plaza and the former Sam's Club store near the Eastwood Mall. The other sites are in Warren: the Kleese properties, the Gibson Building downtown, Riverside Square on Tod Avenue, the closed D.I.Y. store on Elm Road -- and the work-force board's original preference, new construction on virgin land off Youngstown Road near the closed Fiore's El Rio Restaurant.
"It would be nice to make a decision," Heltzel said, saying that the three commissioners "didn't come to a meeting of the minds."
runyan@vindy.com