ASHLAND — Dirt continued to be moved Thursday morning at the future site of the new Ashland County Administration Building.
The $6.1 million project kicked off on March 20 with a groundbreaking ceremony at the 345 Cottage St. site.
Wooster-based Campbell Construction is leading the construction.
The new building will sit on a 1.6-acre lot — formerly the site of the old Ashland Middle School — which the county purchased in August 2024 for $400,000.
After receiving mixed emotions from constituents regarding the decision to construct a new building — versus repurposing an existing building — the Ashland County Board of Commissioners shared more details Thursday about why it went in this direction.
Many comments have been made online specifically asking why the board didn’t pursue the vacant Rite Aid building at 419 Claremont Ave. That Rite Aid closed in August 2025.
Ashland County Commissioner James Justice said the board explored existing buildings, including the Claremont Avenue Rite Aid. Justice said it would have cost the county $3.5 million just to purchase the two-acre property.
He said even with renovations to the building’s interior, the existing building on the property would not have met the county’s needs.
“It became just as financially feasible to build our own building,” Justice said. “A lot of people have looked at that building, but what they’re asking for that building at $3.5 million has turned most people away.”
Justice said commissioners previously repurposed another former Rite Aid, at 1211 Claremont Ave., into the county’s health department headquarters.
Commissioners purchased the 1211 Claremont Ave. property in August 2022 for $850,000, according to the county auditor’s records.
“We revamped that (1211 Claremont Ave.) and it worked for the health department. This just didn’t meet the needs of what we had to have and the cost,” Justice said. “Had that building (419 Claremont Ave.) been a whole lot less, I still don’t know that we could have fit in there very well.
“It just wasn’t financially feasible to do that,” he said.
New vs. Used
Commissioner Denny Bittle said the board also felt it would be the wrong decision to take “good quality” retail or commercial properties for county purposes.
The board also did not want to eliminate a potential retail location that would generate sales tax, Commissioner Michael Welch said.
Bittle said the Rite Aid location now home to the county health department was not positioned in a good spot for retail.
“The access wasn’t very good. It sat there for years,” he said. “At that point, we felt that it really didn’t have a good retail application for it. That’s why we ended up taking that.”
Bittle said the $850,000 purchase price was within reason. Adding in rehab costs to the building, he said the county spent about $1.7 million total to set up the health department building — more affordable than if the county had constructed a new build.
If the board had purchased the 419 Claremont Ave. property for the second administration building, he estimated costs would have exceeded $6.1 million between purchasing the building and renovations.
“Are you going to rehab something old for the same dollars you can build new for? I don’t think so,” Bittle said.
The process of determining where and when to construct a second administration building has been something commissioners have discussed for years, he said.
“We won’t borrow money to do this stuff. It’s going to be paid for (with) cash out of our savings that we’ve saved for years to get to this point,” Bittle said.
What offices are moving to new building?
Construction of the new building is slated for a March 2027 completion.
It will house relocated offices for several county departments, including the auditor’s office, treasurer’s office, recorder’s office and tax map office — which are all currently located inside the Ashland County Courthouse.
The Ashland County Board of Commissioners will not be moving its office to the new building.
“We kind of like it where we’re at (110 Cottage St.),” Welch said in February. “And we need to be close to where the prosecutor’s office is.”
