Elections board expects to move by special election

June 10, 2011 at 12:04a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County Board of Elections officials expect to relocate to Oakhill Renaissance Place in time for the Aug. 2 special election.

“We want to get personnel in there by then, if not sooner,” said board Director Thomas McCabe. “We’re shooting for the August election. If not, it will be right after that.”

Even if the board isn’t ready to move to Oakhill by the Aug. 2 special election, it will definitely handle the November general election from that location, McCabe said.

The only item on the August election ballot is a 3.85-mill, five-year additional Boardman Township police levy.

Election records, voting machines and other items will be moved next week, he said, from the board’s location at the South Side Annex, a building in the city’s Uptown area on Market Street and its home since 1977.

The board’s new location will be on the first floor of Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center on Oak Hill Avenue. The county bought the building in 2006 with plans to consolidate several of its departments there.

The board expects to get a certificate of occupancy for its Oakhill location on Monday, McCabe said.

By the end of June or early July, the board’s desks and computers will move to Oakhill after telephone lines and other needed wiring are installed, McCabe said.

“It looks nice,” McCabe said of the Oakhill location. “The county facilities [management] department did a beautiful job with it.”

That’s quite a change from McCabe’s statements about Oakhill in January, when the board was supposed to move to that location.

In January, McCabe complained about the lack of front-counter space — only 12 feet at the time compared with about 85 feet at the annex — as well as limited access for those who want to vote early at the board office. Also, there were unfinished ceilings, floors, wall, doors and windows in the office.

“It’s like night and day,” McCabe said Thursday about the difference between January and now.

The new board of elections will have five different counters, each about 8 feet long, he said.

“It will work nicely,” McCabe said. “It won’t be like what we have” at the annex.

But the 85 feet of front-counter space is more than any other county board of elections location in Ohio, he said.