Thursday, December 20, 2007
LISBON — Columbiana County commissioners said Wednesday that a proposal to renovate a county office doesn’t reflect all the costs.
Still, Commissioners Jim Hoppel and Dan Bing said they would continue to consider the proposal to fix the county’s Department of Jobs & Family Services, 110 N. Nelson Ave.
The commissioners previously voted to enter into an option to move the department and its 160 workers from the downtown area to the north end of the village.
The project would cost about $8 million. The county has about $1.2 million in grants and other funds and would pay for part of the work with rent paid by DJ & FS. The commissioners still need $2 million to $3 million more to pay for the project.
Architect Robert A. Mastriana of The 4M Company of Boardman had said earlier that renovating the DJ & FS and the county board of elections, 41 N. Park Ave., could be done for about $3 million.
He’s been working with architect Norma J. Stefanik of Youngstown State University’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies.
Mastriana said Wednesday that the DJ & FS building now would cost about $4.8 million. It is located on two floors of a building. The third floor is a bowling alley.
But Hoppel said the new proposal didn’t cover the cost of relocating workers and their equipment while the renovations were done, as well as the cost of additional parking.
Some parking spaces are reserved for clients, but workers often have to keep moving their cars during the day because of metered parking.
There are some properties near the existing building that could be purchased for parking, but their cost isn’t known.