Dissenting officials flag 'hidden costs' of Oakhill

The hospital acquisition could lead to a tax increase, the treasurer says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Three elected county officeholders continued to express concerns about undetermined costs associated with the purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place.
The Mahoning County commissioners voted 2-1 on Thursday to buy the building.
The day after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kay Woods approved the sale of Oakhill to the county for $75,000, Commissioners Anthony Traficanti and David N0. Ludt voted to execute the purchase, but Commissioner John A. McNally dissented.
"Acquiring this property will help us consolidate leases under one roof," Traficanti said, adding that the county plans to move its Department of Job and Family Services and Child Support Enforcement Agency from rented quarters at McGuffey Plaza on the city's East Side to Oakhill.
"Without acting, I would not have been doing my job in finding those employees a new home in an environment that will be cost-friendly to Mahoning County," Traficanti added. "This revitalization is certainly going to be part of the renaissance to the downtown area."
Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, 345 Oak Hill Ave. The nonprofit Southside Community Development Corp., which owned Oakhill, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy May 3. Oakhill has nine tenants, including the county coroner's office and the Youngstown Health Department.
All three county commissioners voted to retain Sodexho Associates Inc. of Wexford, Pa., as Oakhill's building manager at $8,500 a week and to officially appoint four men to serve with the county commissioners on a building commission that will develop the Oakhill property.
The four appointees previously had served for 2 1/2 years on an ad hoc building commission appointed by SCDC.
The appointees are architect Robert Hanahan, Atty. David C. Comstock, building contractor Joseph Sylvester Jr., and John N. Logue, retired executive vice president of the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.
Unanswered questions
Shortly after the commissioners meeting, McNally, county Treasurer John B. Reardon and county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino had a news conference to discuss their concerns about the purchase.
"We are not sure what the financial obligations of Mahoning County in running this building are going to be," McNally said. Acquisition of the 353,184-square-foot Oakhill building increases by one-third the amount of space under the county's management, he noted. "There are still a lot of hidden costs we're going to have to deal with," he added.
"There are too many unanswered questions relating to the purchase of this facility," Reardon said. "This project, in my opinion, has disaster written all over it," he said, adding, "This project could lead to a tax increase."
Reardon issued a lengthy list of questions about Oakhill concerning payment of $417,000 in delinquent real estate taxes, how the purchase is to be funded, the condition of the building and its electrical substation, remediation costs for asbestos and other hazards, relocation and remodeling costs for county agencies moving to Oakhill, debt to be incurred and utility and other operating costs.
Traficanti said these matters will be addressed by the building commission, whose first meeting will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 9 in the county commissioners' office.
"I don't have any real sense of how much this project is going to cost long term," Sciortino said. Even though he is the county's chief financial officer, Sciortino said he hasn't been included in any discussions with the commissioners concerning the Oakhill acquisition.
"We all have to do our due diligence to make sure that we have a plan and that we don't let this project turn into a disaster," Sciortino added.