Commission seeks funds OK on Oakhill renovation

The initial design work should be completed by mid-December, officials said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Building Commission is asking the county auditor to certify that the county has money available to pay an architect to do the initial floor-plan design at Oakhill Renaissance Place.
The county bought the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in late July and intends to convert it into a government center.
The county plan is to have its Job and Family Services offices relocated there from Garland Plaza in June 2007.
Job and Family Services would be the anchor tenant and occupy about 100,000 square feet. The building commission has informally indicated it wants to hire Olsavsky-Jaminet Architects of Youngstown to do the design work and oversee the renovation of that space. Early estimates put the renovation cost at about 5 million.
Atty. David Comstock Sr., commission chairman, said Wednesday that the floor-plan design work, which will include renovation cost estimates, is to be done by Olsavsky-Jaminet at a cost not to exceed 50,000.
Will go to auditor
That proposal will be sent to Michael Sciortino, county auditor, for certification that funds exist to pay the contract, Comstock said, adding that the money will initially have to come from the county's general fund.
Once that certification is issued, the commission will formally award the contract, he said.
Olsavsky-Jaminet is also in line to perform final design work and oversee the renovations at an additional fee not to exceed 400,000.
Sciortino was unavailable for comment, but a spokeswoman in his office said the request for certification of funds would have to go through the normal review procedures. The Olsavsky-Jaminet contract hadn't been presented to the office as of Wednesday morning, the spokeswoman said.
Sciortino has been critical of the county's move to buy Oakhill without doing what he thinks were adequate assessments of potential costs that might be incurred. He has refused to issue a 75,000 check covering the purchase of the property.
George Tablack, county administrator, said the county plans to borrow money through a bond issue to pay for the Oakhill renovation, spreading the repayment of that debt over 20 yeas and paying it off with state and federal grant revenues that come to the county to fund JFS.
Part of bond debt
There won't be any direct cost to the taxpayers from the general fund, he said. The architect fees would be part of that debt.
The county recently learned that its bond rating has improved slightly, Tablack said. An improved rating means a lower interest rate on the bonds.
The initial design work by Olsavsky-Jaminet should be completed by mid-December, he said.
gwin@vindy.com