ASHLAND — Ashland County commissioners hired an architectural firm Thursday to design a new administrative building.
The unanimous vote means VSWC Architects will design a new office building for a price not to exceed $590,000. Officials have estimated the actual construction of the building — which won’t begin until 2026 — to be $6 million.
Talks of a new office building have been ongoing for years, given the limited space for county administrative functions in the courthouse.
But commissioners got the ball rolling in January 2023, when they bought a house along Church Street. The plan then was to demolish the house and build new.
That property, however, ended up being too small. (The plan there, now, is to convert the property into a parking lot for county employees.) So, in August 2024, commissioners agreed to purchase a larger, 1.6-acre lot at the corner of Cottage and Fourth streets.
The new building is expected to house the county auditor, treasurer, recorder and tax map offices. All of those offices are currently housed within the Ashland County courthouse. Once those offices move into a new building, the century-old courthouse building will receive work to reconfigure the space, commissioners have said.
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What about the title office?
Finding a permanent office space for the county’s title office remains in flux after Ashland County Clerk of Courts Deborah Myers expressed concerns about relocating her office to the dog shelter.
On Thursday, Commissioner Denny Bittle said he’s begun talks with American Automobile Association, the organization currently operating Ashland’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Bittle said he’d like to determine whether AAA would agree to moving the BMV office — currently located along Commerce Parkway — to another location closer to the title office.
He’s also interested in exploring a bid to change the BMV into a county-run agency.
“I think there’s operational advantages for the county to (operate the BMV) as opposed to AAA,” Bittle said.
But that is an option among several, he said.
“We’re just such at a preliminary (stage) and having what I call ‘open discussions,’” Bittle said.