Consolidating Butler County offices inching closer to reality

The county needs many of these separate facilities because there isn’t room in the Government Services Center in downtown Hamilton for everything.

The plan is 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.

County Auditor Nancy Nix told the Journal-News she surveyed other auditors’ offices in the state and Butler is the only one where the auditor, recorder and treasurer – people generally need all three offices when they are transacting business – aren’t housed together.

“I’ve been clamoring for the recorder, the auditor and the treasurer to be together for the last 17 years I’ve been here,” Nix said. “Because you witness taxpayers who come in and you say now you have to go across the street and down two or three blocks… It’s insane.”

The commissioners asked the state to do a financial performance audit back in 2011 and that’s when space consolidation first surfaced. There have been two space utilization studies since then, the latest was a $145,000 effort by CBRE, Inc. in 2022.

The commissioners hired Dayton-based LWC Incorporated recently for up to $86,000 to do architectural work to help execute the moves to the GSC and the Liberty Fairfield building. They are starting to meet with the impacted offices to determine their needs and whether the new facilities will work.

County Recorder Danny Crank has long been concerned about the move because there aren’t many load-bearing spaces to hold all of his record books. He said some of his books weigh 25 pounds and date back to the late 1700s.

It helped that the commissioners gave him $625,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money to scan his materials, so he doesn’t have to move everything over. He said he’s thinking of saving some books for about five years in case something is missing from the scanning project, “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“I do feel comfortable that they will be able to accommodate me,” Crank said adding it will depend on where they plan to locate his offices, “we must near the auditor’s office because of transferring deeds and conveyances, we work back and forth daily so we have to be pretty close.”

Nix, who used to call the GSC home when she was the county treasurer, said her main concern with the move is whether there is enough space to accommodate her 28-person staff and all the functions they perform, especially security for the payroll and finance division of her operations.

She said “my worry is the space and not being packed in there like sardines, also the parking I want the auditor employees to have pretty much or same parking situation that they have now.”

The Butler County General Health District owns its own building, a very old and cramped space on Third Street in downtown Hamilton. The 55 employees who are housed there are slated to go to the old DD building in Liberty Twp.

Health Commissioner Erik Ballster told the Journal-News he is also concerned about having enough space in the new location, especially since they would like to expand some of their clinical options to include prenatal health and more sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment.

Overall he said the move would be a huge benefit to the public with ample parking, ease of access and the fact that new businesses need services from all three agencies to get permits.

“It’s a one stop shop for that, certainly the space and parking are perks,” Ballster said. “So fingers crossed it works out in everyone’s favor.”

John Fabelo, a partner at LWC, told the Journal-News they are still in the early stages, but they have walked the GSC and there is a lot of underutilized space that will need to be reconfigured because there are pockets of unused space but not enough is contiguous presently. He said he’ll have a better idea of the exact needs after he meets with Crank and Nix on July 29.

“If we took all these different departments and consolidate them into a more functioning space, the furniture that they have, we could clear up 15,000-plus square feet, basically a floor,” Fabelo said. “What I don’t know is whether 15,000 square feet is going to be enough.”

He said some current tenants will “absolutely” have to be shuffled in the move but the goal is to “figure out what is least disruption on the current staff and workflow.”

He said depending on the extent of the reconfiguration some moves could be accomplished this year, but the entire project won’t be complete.

There is about 31,000 square feet in the old daycare building so Fabelo said it certainly appears it is roomy enough for all three agencies, but they won’t know until they do a needs assessment with the new tenants.

Selling property

Commissioner Don Dixon said they plan to either sell or lease the old Administration Center, he believes they can fetch $5 million, possibly $6 million for the 35-year-old building.

“Most people when they buy something from the government they expect to get a steal,” Dixon said. “That’s not going to be the case, it’s a nice building, it’s the best location downtown, it’s going to bring top dollar.”

Commissioner T.C. Rogers wouldn’t say what he thinks the building is worth but agreed they’ll make a good deal for the taxpayers.

“We will make a good deal on it and it’s not only just price, we may trade something for it,” Rogers said.

The commissioners have earmarked $30 million for the space reutilization project already and another $15 million is penciled in the 2025 tax budget.

Cost estimates for the aforementioned moves haven’t been finalized but $25 million is the estimated cost for another piece of the right-sizing project. The county is building a new facility for the coroner and the sheriff’s dispatch center on the Princeton Road campus where the Board of Elections resides.

The Hamilton Planning Commission gave its blessing recently for the two-winged facility with a shared space in the middle. Senior Planner Ed Wilson said the project will be on the city council agenda for a first reading Aug. 28.

Sheriff’s office

Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer said they will retain the old, cramped dispatch center that already resides on the Princeton Road campus because it has some equipment that will be tied into the new facility.

He said they have outgrown the space where the dispatchers answer emergency police, fire and EMS calls and dispatch to and for nine law enforcement agencies and 17 fire/EMS agencies in Butler County, among other duties from a dozen stations.

In 2022 they received 102,578 emergency 911 calls with an additional 147,515 incoming calls and 142,720 outgoing. They also monitored nearly 1.7 million “push to talks” which means emergency responders in the field are communicating with each other and the center.

“It’s a lot of activity,” he said previously.

“If you talk about the monies that are available in the county to do something that has a direct impact to the safety and welfare of the residents, this is it,” Dwyer has said. “What would the people want? An effective 911 center when they need help.”

Butler County Coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix has been begging the commissioners for new space for years, since the morgue is located on Fairgrove Avenue in Hamilton and the coroner’s administrative offices are on the sixth floor of the Government Services Center — about a mile and a half away.

Her Administrator Martin Schneider said not only will the combined facility provide greater efficiencies and continuity for the coroner’s staff, it makes much more sense financially in the long run, given the $4,944 monthly lease cost.

The county has been leasing warehouse space since 2003 for the morgue — at a total cost of around $1.5 million including common area maintenance.

“That’s a lot of money to be shelling out to something at the end of the day we’ll have nothing to show for it,” Schneider said. “It’s like the difference between renting a home and buying a home. When you’re buying a home and making mortgage payments you’re building equity, you’ve got something to show for it at the end. If you are renting a home and paying rent to a landlord, when you move out all that money’s gone.”

Dixon said that project should be done next year.

Other cogs in the space reutilization plan include moving the OhioMeansJobs office in Fairfield to the Vora Technology Park where the new Miami University and Butler Tech advanced manufacturing facility will be housed.

Commissioner Cindy Carpenter told the Journal-News this move makes terrific sense since OMJ has tuition assistance programs. She has long lobbied to move OMJ from its relatively obscure location, “it took a long time, but I didn’t give up.”

“OMJ is going to finally move out of Fairfield where it does no good,” Capenter said. “And it’s going to go into the new VORA Technology building which will be the innovation hub for Miami University and Butler Tech.”

County Administrator Judi Boyko told the Journal-News phase three will likely entail combining the social service agencies – Children Services, the Child Support and Enforcement Agency and Job and Family Services – on the Fair Avenue campus where Children Services lives.