Debate continues over project to renovate or rebuild J&FS

The county doesn’t have the money to do either project.

LISBON — Preservationist Stevie Halverstadt says the Columbiana County Department of Job & Family Services would have a new building downtown — because the renovated building will be new.

The county commissioners, however, fear that trying to renovate the existing J&FS building at 110 N. Nelson Ave. could cost the county more than a new building.

Preservationists, meanwhile, want to keep those jobs downtown. The J&FS has about 160 workers.

The Lisbon Area Chamber of Commerce told the commissioners last week that if the agency was moved to just inside the northern village limits, village stores could lose up to $1 million in revenue.

Halverstadt said she talked Monday with J&FS workers, after rumors surfaced that they may boycott Lisbon businesses.

Eileen Dray-Bardon, the director of J&FS, said Monday she had only heard some grumbling last week from her workers, but no talk of a boycott.

Halverstadt, with her family, is renovating the oldest brick building in Ohio directly west of the courthouse. She is working with Robert A. Mastriana, a Boardman architect who oversaw the recent courthouse renovation, to try to renovate the existing J&FS.

The commissioners don’t have enough money now to either renovate or build.

A new building at the northern edge of the village that would include J&FS would cost about $8 million. It would also include the county board of elections and the veterans commission, which have only a handful of workers.

The county owns the board of elections but rents space for veterans services.

Halverstadt said that renovating the J&FS would cost $4.6 million, some $1.2 million each for the elections board and veterans agency.