ASHLAND — County commissioners have changed course, partially, for future plans on the building purchased earlier this year on Claremont Avenue.
Instead of the 11,000 square-foot being the new home for two county agencies, it will likely only house one, Commissioner Denny Bittle said Thursday.
“We’re really looking now to not putting EMA in there — just the health department only,” Bittle said.
Commissioners agreed to buy the vacant building at 1211 Claremont Ave. in April for $850,000. Bittle said the property’s closing is slated for the last week of August.
Originally, the plan was to house both the county’s health and EMA departments in the 11,000 square-foot building. However, Bittle said Thursday the facility will only be able to house the health department because of security requirements that cannot be met due to the layout of the long building.
“The health department is public and because of the Ohio Revised building codes, you have to have ingress and egress in spots. We didn’t realize, but it creates a security issue because you can’t lock down any part of the building,” he said.
The EMA, originally, was supposed to be located in the back of the building, he said. This creates an issue because the building would be open in both the front and back.
“So we’re looking for different avenues for EMA,” he said.
Bittle declined to announce a couple different options commissioners are considering.
The search for an EMA director to replace Mark Rafeld — who retired July 29 — is still ongoing, with applications arriving. Bittle hopes to have more information on where the EMA will be located and who its director will be in the next two to three weeks.
Meanwhile, commissioners agreed to send a letter of intent to Rite Aid Corporation. If agreed upon, it would allow the company to buy out a remaining lease deal on the Claremont Avenue building. The 3.5-year lease is worth $200,000.
If agreed upon by Rite Aid, it would mean the county would receive a $200,000 check from Rite Aid, effectively making the purchase of the building worth $650,000.
Bittle said he met with representatives from Simonson Construction Services, the firm hired to perform renovations on the building, and VSWC Architects to finalize the layout.
Commissioners have estimated the renovation to cost anywhere from $1.5 million to $2 million.
The project’s completion date is “somewhere in May” of 2023. Once completed, the plan is to move the county’s health department into the building.
Both the health and EMA departments are currently housed in the former county services building, which recently sold to the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center for $500,000 following a shaky negotiation.
