“The initial project estimate after schematic design was nearly $38 million dollars, which we knew far exceeded the commissioners’ aspirations for the cost of the project,” she said. “That $38 million is turnkey, completely designed, constructed, all of the fees, all of the consulting and engagement of the professionals and furnishings and fixtures.”
She added they went back to the drawing board and were hoping to get the cost down to around $32 million but as it stands the price is just shy of $35 million. The commissioners have $45 million in the capital reserve fund set aside so far for their space reutilization project.
A very preliminary estimate on the Princeton Road campus project — where the Board of Elections lives — was $25 million but Commissioner Don Dixon said that didn’t include fixtures and equipment. He said he expects the price to go lower when they go out to bid, but the current economic environment, especially the volatile tariff landscape, will determine the bottom line and next steps, “we’re going to wait and see and keep our fingers crossed at this point.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“Nobody knows right now on the tariffs, it could put huge delays on the project, that’s all unknown, one day they’re on, one day they’re off, the next day they’re not as much,” Dixon said. “We just have to go out to the marketplace and see what they are, if they’re way, way more than we expected, we’re going to have to go back to the drawing boards.”
Part of the high cost includes building for future growth. Scott Csendes, vice president and director of the Civic & Public Safety Group for KZF Design, told the commissioners they were able to realize some cost savings by shaving from the growth areas but made sure “if you do have to make a move in the future we made sure it would be simply done if you need to add square footage.”
Sheriff Richard Jones said he’s fine with the space reduction, “We cut space but we’re good for the future but not like 100 years out, but we won’t be here.”
County Coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix echoed that thought, “We’re good in the changes that we made for now, prioritizing what the needs are now and we will be comfortable.”
This is just the first step in the multi-phased plan the commissioners have been working on for years to better utilize their physical space and provide better customer service. But there have been a few hiccups lately.
The master plan has been to empty the old Administration Center at 130 High Street, moving the county auditor and recorder’s office into the Government Services Center and the development and water and sewer departments to the former Developmental Disabilities Board adult daycare center on Liberty-Fairfield Road and Ohio 4. The health department — which owns its own building that some say is inadequate — was supposed to move to the Liberty-Fairfield location too.
It has long been a goal to have the auditor, recorder and treasurer co-located because people often need the services of all three at once.
County Auditor Nancy Nix and the health department recently told the commissioners they’d rather not move. Given that, the Journal-News asked Dixon why they wouldn’t leave everyone where they are and save the $2.4 million estimated cost to renovate the Liberty-Fairfield Road building.
The commissioners recently agreed to go out to bid for the Liberty-Fairfield renovation.
Dixon told the Journal-News they are having to rethink some moves because the Area Courts just told them they want to relocate some of their courts to more secure space in the GSC, based on an Ohio Supreme Court assessment, “it really threw a wrench into the whole process at this point, but it didn’t blow it all up, it’s better that we know we have to move the courts now, than after we made these moves.”
“It really was a major issue that now has caused us to take a look at the new requirements. That doesn’t mean all the stuff we’ve done is for naught,” he said and later added, “We always kind of thought about emptying the old Administration Building and selling it and consolidating to ours, but with bringing the courts in there’s just not enough room in ours so it just make sense to keep our old Administration Building.”
Area Courts Administrator Jeanette Bullard told the Journal-News “we are in talks” about a possible move but there are no solid plans. She said the main concern is to move the Area II Court out of the Historic Courthouse in downtown Hamilton.
“The Historic Courthouse, we want to keep it historic and aesthetically pleasing and we want to maintain the beauty of it and the historic part of it and that doesn’t really jibe well with modern conveniences and it is relatively small,” she said. “The Supreme Court did a security audit in April of 2024 and felt we needed a bigger space.”
She said the Area I Court in Oxford is “also considered a possibility but I don’t know that that will come to fruition.” She said moving Area III Court out of West Chester Twp. is not currently on the table.
Bullard said the judges on her court would not release the Supreme Court audit for security reasons. The high court told the Journal-News the same thing.
Dixon said down the road they may need to consider relocating all of the Area Courts “we found it to be long-term less costly to bring them back to one of our buildings.”
“The long term plan is to bring them into the same kind of secured area as we have the rest of the judges,” Dixon said. “In the short term we’re going to have to do some sort of temporary plan to meet the requirements for the Area Courts.”
Boyko told the Journal-News they have already taken steps to address some of the items listed in the Supreme Court audit, but some just aren’t feasible, hence the relocation discussion.
Dixon said it still makes sense to move development and water and sewer because they’ll be closer to the county engineer and it’s more centrally located. In the end he said they’ll need all three buildings — they are just trying to figure out who goes where.
The main hub for county government is the Government Services Center in downtown Hamilton but there are 19 other separate buildings for all county operations.
Nix was the first person to voice concerns about plans for her new office. She told the Journal-News she still believes her offices should be co-located with the recorder and treasurer, but if they move into the cramped quarters on the 8th floor that was planned for them it won’t meet their needs. She said they’ll go from nine private offices to two and insufficient areas for all of her specialized needs, like privacy for employees in charge of payroll and benefits and her appraisers have four large monitors on their desks, to name a few.
Plus she said she’d be asking her staff to have to operate in an area that is not on par with other offices and they’d lose their good parking situation, she said it’s not fair.
“I would like to be in that building for cohesion, it makes sense, I personally want to be there,” she said. “However I cannot get my staff, not even one to be incentivized to go, due to condensed space and parking considerations. They just don’t see any upside.”
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