5 county agencies set dates to move to Oakhill

By Peter H. Milliken

The elections board and auto title office are to move in January 2010.

YOUNGSTOWN — Five more Mahoning County agencies and a regional law enforcement task force will move to Oakhill Renaissance Place by early next year, according to a tentative timetable issued by the county’s architects.

The timetable was released by Olsavsky-Jaminet Architects Inc. at a Wednesday meeting of the county’s building commission, which is overseeing renovations at Oakhill.

When all the moves are complete, occupancy of the former hospital’s 315,000 square feet of leasable space will rise from the current 40 percent to 60 percent to 70 percent, said Tracie A. Kaglic, Oakhill project manager at the architectural firm.

“I hope we can expedite the time frame that I have given,” Kaglic said.

The county’s recycling division will move in October, followed a month later by the county health department’s senior citizen day-care center and the county’s lead hazard control office. The board of elections and the clerk of courts’ auto title department are slated to move in January 2010.

The elections board, auto title office and senior day care will be on the first floor.

“The board of elections and clerk of courts, with the number of people that they see, I think the first floor area works best for them,” Kaglic said.

Senior day care belongs on the first floor for best handicapped accessibility, she added.

The Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force and the FBI office could move to the third floor tower wing in February 2010, but that’s contingent on the FBI’s approval of security arrangements, Kaglic said.

All of the agencies will be moving to Oakhill from the county’s South Side Annex on Market Street, except the lead hazard control office, which is in Austintown.

The clerk of courts could begin moving some record storage from the county courthouse to Oakhill in July 2009, with basement storage available for the board of elections after the November 2009 election, the architectural firm said.

The county coroner’s office, Department of Job and Family Services and Veterans Service Commission are already at Oakhill, together with the city health department and the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership.

Kaglic said she hopes to have Oakhill’s basement cafeteria operating later this year.

George J. Tablack, county administrator, said any potential cafeteria operator must be able to pay in advance for any necessary food service area renovations.

Located at 345 Oak Hill Ave., Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center. The county bought the former hospital in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in July 2006 for use as a county office complex.

Kaglic said she hopes A.W. Farrell Co., to which the commission awarded a $379,000 roof replacement contract, will replace about 28,000 square feet of Oakhill’s roof this spring and summer.

To allow further study and comment, the commission postponed discussion, until its next meeting, on a proposal to enter into a three-year steam-heating contract for Oakhill with Youngstown Thermal, which now heats the building.

The county now pays Youngstown Thermal $19.72 per thousand pounds for high pressure steam; and the new rates would be $17.50 per thousand pounds in the first year, and either $18 or $14.89 after that, depending on usage. Steam to heat Oakhill now costs the county about $530,000 a year.

Jacob A. Williams, the county’s information technology director, recommended an expansion of telephone service capacity at Oakhill before additional county agencies move there because many callers get busy signals during peak calling periods at JFS and the Veterans Service Commission.