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Oakhill roofing repairs slated
Four additional county agencies are moving to the former hospital.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Building Commission has approved more than $289,000 worth of improvements to Oakhill Renaissance Place.
These include the replacement of 24,000 square feet of Oakhill’s leaking roof at a cost of $10 per square foot for an estimated total of $240,000. That area amounts to about one-quarter of all roof surfaces at Oakhill.
Architect Tracie A. Kaglic said she wants that work to be completed in October or November.
“I don’t think that the roof repairs for the building is a surprise to anybody. We knew going in that roofs were going to need some attention,” Atty. David Comstock, commission chairman, said Monday.
“Unfortunately, roofs never get any attention until they leak,” said Architect Ray Jaminet.
Another candidate for replacement is the tower penthouse roof, which has experienced major leaks and is over major electrical equipment and elevator shafts and has had numerous recent repairs, Kaglic told the commission.
The commission retroactively authorized a $49,584 emergency project Murphy Contracting Co. performed over the summer to replace old corroded rooftop air conditioning chilled water pipes.
Had those pipes broken, the building would have been without air conditioning and might have had to close, Kaglic told the commission.
The building commission also authorized bidding for construction of new public bathrooms for the second, third and fourth floors.
The goal of that effort is to assure sufficient public facilities and centralize public bathrooms for ease of maintenance and improved security, eliminating the need for the public to wander the building looking for them, Kaglic said.
Located at 345 Oak Hill Ave., Oakhill is the 353,000 square-foot former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
The county commissioners bought Oakhill in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in July 2006 and moved the county’s Department of Job and Family Services from rented quarters on the city’s East Side to Oak- hill in July 2007.
County Administrator George J. Tablack said the county inherited the roof problems when it bought the building.
But Commissioner John A. McNally IV, who cast the lone vote against buying Oakhill, said in an e-mail to The Vindicator after the meeting: “We did not inherit the problem. We bought the problem.” McNally said he didn’t recall any detailed discussion of roof replacement by county officials before Monday’s meeting.
Four county departments are scheduled to move from the county’s South Side Annex on Market Street to Oakhill either this year or next year.
Kaglic said she hopes construction will be completed in three to four weeks in first-floor space at Oakhill for the county’s Veterans Services Commission in preparation for its midfall move this year.
Interior demolition is complete on third-floor west wing space tentatively to be occupied by the county’s recycling division (Green Team). Kaglic said her goal is for the Green Team to move by the end of this year.
Next year, the clerk of courts auto title department is to move into first-floor space, and the board of elections will tentatively move to first-floor and basement space, she added.
milliken@vindy.com