Thursday, December 27, 2007
The commissoners have a six-month option to buy 4.6 acres for $290,000. They’ll pay a couple thousand
dollars for the option.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON — Columbiana County officials are moving ahead with a plan to move some downtown offices to a proposed building at the northern edge of the village.
Eileen Dray-Bardon, director of the county’s Department of Jobs & Family Services, said Wednesday she would start the process to activate some funding for the project.
Gov. Ted Strickland, while the congressman for Lisbon, obtained $250,000 in federal funds to help pay for the project.
Dray-Bardon said that federal funding reductions cut the amount to $247,000. She will ask federal officials to release the money.
The commissioners have entered into an option to buy 4.6 acres from businessmen Tim and David Dickey.
The price of the property is $290,000, according to Commissioner Jim Hoppel.
The commissioner said the county will pay the owners “a couple of thousand dollars” for a six-month option to buy the property.
Former state Rep. Chuck Blasdel had also obtained $1 million for the new office building.
Under the plan, Dray-Bardon’s agency will pay rent to the county to help finance the new building that is estimated to cost $7 million to $8 million.
Hoppel said the county still needs $2 million to $3 million in grants to complete the project.
Dray-Bardon is also getting a new, federally funded phone system for the county DJ&FS offices at 110 Nelson St. in Lisbon to replace one that she said is old and inadequate.
Dray-Bardon also told the commissioners that the new system could be moved to the proposed new building.
Architect Robert A. Mastriana of The 4M Company of Boardman and architect Norma J. Stefanik of Youngstown State University’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies, have suggested the commissioners renovate the existing DJ&FS for less money.
Hoppel said the architects haven’t said what the total renovations would cost. He also said that moving DJ&FS workers to a temporary location during any renovation would be difficult.
Dray-Bardon said four workers and a supervisor will open up a field office Feb. 4 in East Liverpool City Hospital.
The workers will handle all programs except cash assistance. People seeking such payments will have to go to the Lisbon office.
The agency has about 160 workers.
The field office is being opened because most of the welfare cases are from East Liverpool, the county’s largest city. Dray-Bardon said the field office will prevent people from having to drive to Lisbon.
wilkinson@vindy.com