Officials dismiss purchase risks

The county took ownership of the building Friday morning.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Administrator George Tablack and Commissioner Anthony Traficanti dismissed a suggestion by county Treasurer John Reardon that county residents' taxes might increase because of the county's purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place.
"It was the most misleading comment out of the entire interview -- the one I took the most offense to," Tablack said. "The notion of an increased property tax is so outrageous. It can't be anything but an attempt to scare the public."
Traficanti added that no additional sales tax will be needed to pay for Oakhill.
Reardon made the tax increase comment Thursday in a news conference after the commissioners, in a 2-1 vote, bought the facility.
With regard to debt the county might incur for development of the building, Tablack said the county's borrowing capacity will increase over the next three years because of retirement of debt for other projects, including the county jail and courthouse restoration, but he did not provide a specific borrowing limit.
The county formally took possession of Oakhill on Friday morning, and the building is insured, Tablack said. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kay Woods approved the sale of the building to the county for $75,000 earlier this week.
Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, 345 Oak Hill Ave. The nonprofit Southside Community Development Corp., which previously owned Oakhill, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy May 3.
Traficanti described Oakhill as a "wonderful property that I felt should have been taken over years ago" by the county, but said he had concerns then about the county's ownership of a building with a 24-hour hospital operation in it. Mahoning Valley Hospital moved out in May.
"It becomes now a government office complex," Traficanti said. "It is finally a building that the taxpayers own, and the rents will be coming into the general fund," of the county, Traficanti added. "We can amortize debt over time."
With Oakhill becoming a government office building, "We can ask for state and federal grant money to help us with things we may want to do there," he added.
Using the space
Oakhill has nine tenants, who collectively occupy less than 100,000 square feet of the 353,184-square-foot building, and the county will be renegotiating their leases. "Our goal is to keep them as tenants," Tablack said. Occupants include the city health department and county coroner's office.
Tablack also said he doesn't believe asbestos and other hazardous materials will be an impediment to the county's use of the Oakhill building. Tablack said he doubted accrediting agencies and government regulators would have been comfortable with the building's use by a hospital if hazardous materials posed a health threat there.
Tablack, Traficanti and Commissioner David N. Ludt held a news conference Friday afternoon to address questions and concerns raised by Commissioner John A. McNally, who voted against the acquisition, and by Reardon and county Auditor Michael Sciortino.
Traficanti said the commissioners' first priority is to move the county's Department of Job and Family Services and Child Support Enforcement Agency, which have more than 400 employees combined, from rented quarters at Garland Plaza on the city's East Side, where he said the county's occupancy costs are $1.3 million a year, to Oakhill.
Other county departments could eventually move to Oakhill, including the Green Team (Mahoning County Reuse and Recycle Division), the board of elections and the lead abatement program, Traficanti said.
Tablack mentioned the county mental health board, which rents offices in the Ohio One Building, and Board of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, which leases space in 20 Federal Plaza (the former Phar-Mor Centre), as potential Oakhill occupants.
Operational continuity
The commissioners retained Sodexho Associates Inc. of Wexford, Pa., which managed the building under SCDC, as Oakhill's building manager at $8,500 a week.
Tablack explained commissioners did that to maintain continuity of building operations during the transition period, and that Sodexho's management can be terminated upon a week's notice.
Tablack said Head Start runs a child day-care center at Oakhill, and county officials have discussed accommodating children of county employees there. County officials have considered leasing Oakhill's kitchen to a retail food service chain, he added.
The building commission formally appointed by the county commissioners to develop the Oakhill property will have its first meeting at 10 a.m. Aug. 9 in the county commissioners' office.