ASHLAND — A divided Ashland County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved buying the former Pump House Ministries office building, against the advice of county Auditor Cindy Funk and Prosecutor Chris Tunnell.
In what they call a “forward-thinking move,” commissioners Michael Welch and Denny Bittle approved the purchase of the approximately 44,000-square-foot building at 400 Orange St. for $146,000 from the Ashland County Land Reutilization Corporation (Land Bank).
Commissioner Jim Justice opposed the move, expressing concerns of the uncertain timing and ongoing costs associated with the building.
“The time is not right, in the middle of an emergency, to be buying a building, especially when we’re telling everyone else to cut spending as much as you can and pull back,” Justice said. “Then, we go and buy a building? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Money for the purchase will come from the capital projects fund — the same fund impacted last week when commissioners unanimously authorized the county’s only ongoing stream of funding for capital projects be redirected to the general fund.
Based on a March 26 decision, 100 percent of the county’s quarterly casino revenue and the 2 percent of the monthly sales tax revenue being accumulated in its capital projects fund is instead being deposited in the county’s general fund as of April 1.
They touted the move as proactive, one made in anticipation of a likely drop in sales tax revenue.
The funds could account for approximately $192,000 per quarter, based on what had been previously accumulated before statewide business closures. The 2 percent sales tax would typically amount to $14,000 per month and the casino revenue would bring in approximately $600,000 per year — or $150,000 per quarter. They anticipated significantly less.
The capital projects fund is a restricted fund, meaning once dollars are allocated to there, they are only to be used for capital projects and can’t be moved elsewhere without a court order.
The capital projects fund covers parking lots, sidewalks, furniture, room remodels and more. The county established its capital projects fund in 2014, and substantially grew it with a windfall of money from the Rover Pipeline project and sale of other properties.
The capital projects fund currently sits at just above $2 million and will not increase again without commissioner action. The only ongoing funding to this account was the money recently redirected to the general fund.
Two million dollars is also the estimate to renovate the entirety of the former pump house office building. Complete renovation would be the most expensive of several options for the Fourth Street property.
That seemingly is the most unlikely option, as the county would only need 15,000-square-foot of space, according to a generous estimate from Funk. Commissioners didn’t dispute her estimate; rather Welch called her numbers, “pretty accurate.”
Funk’s estimate includes moving the county auditor, treasurer, title department, recorder, tax map office, health department and emergency management agency to the new space. She says adding an extra 1,500 square feet to the projected need, only a mere 15,000-square-feet of space is necessary.
“I don’t think we should buy or purchase a building that has 44,000-square-feet when we only need 15,000 and ask the tax payers to renovate that… You have the governor telling his departments to cut 20 percent. Do you think we should be spending money, especially if we don’t know what the revenue is?
“The last time the sales tax revenue dropped in Ashland County, it dropped 12 percent. Over $800,000. That’s just sales tax,” Funk said.
Her concern is directly tied to orders for non-essential businesses to remain closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Tunnell echoed that tone when addressing commissioners later.
Neither Tunnell or Funk asked commissioners to disregard the building purchase. Instead they urged the leaders to postpone the decision, to wait until they had a clearer picture of the economic situation.
“I think what we’re going to see — given the current climate — is going to make 2008 look like child’s play,” Tunnell said.
He asked commissioners to consider a more significant impact than that of the 2008 economic downtown and its lengthy recovery.
He recognized the capital fund’s restrictions, saying there could be more prudent needs for those dollars in the future.
“It’s not like this is an infinite well you can just dip into when you need it,” Tunnell said.
“I understand in the ordinary course to purchase a building in this fashion in better times, you wouldn’t see anyone here objecting because the dollars in terms of county funds, even in the six figures, isn’t necessarily a huge sticker shock. It’s the ongoing cost of the project,” the prosecutor said.
If it was a private transfer, instead of one with the land bank, he questioned whether or not the purchase would be entertained at all.
“I think, if this were just a private transfer, if someone was looking at selling this thing to you at this price at this time, when your financial advisor — in Ms. Funk, the county auditor — is telling you now is not the time, and your attorney — the county prosecutor — is telling you, this isn’t a good idea at this time, I think you guys would be pumping the brakes,” Tunnell said.
Bittle said the purchase does not corner the county into spending substantial money on the building. His decision was a commitment “to looking into” the property, performing proper due diligence before potentially renovating the space — one of many options.
Instead of renovating the entire building, the county could renovate a portion of the space, rent a portion of the space, sell the north half of the building, sell the entire building or even demolish it if it was unable to be salvaged.
“There are private people in the community that have guaranteed me if the county’s not going to use it, they will purchase it from us and use it in the private sector. I believe them, and I have upmost confidence in them that that would happen if our studies show it’s not a good business for us to do this,” Bittle said.
He argued the county must own the property to perform proper due diligence. Justice disagreed, saying the county had ample opportunity to perform its due diligence, but hasn’t.
Justice said he wanted to see engineered drawings, detailing how the building could be used before entertaining its purchase.
The property has been in land bank possession for about eight months, commissioners estimated. Already, an asbestos analysis was completed while the property was in land bank hands.
“I believe if we don’t purchase it today, we’d waste taxpayer money looking at a building we didn’t own,” Bittle said.
Bittle said it was a difficult decision, but it was best — both for the short and long term. Short term, it’s an opportunity to perform the best analysis of the property’s use, and long term, it’s a valuable asset for the county and its residents, he said.
“I think its vitally important for us to get what we need short term, in other words, a year or two, however long it takes us to do our due diligence to make sure this is done correctly, and also five, 10, 20, 30 years down the road, I think we catch it all,” Bittle said.
“It’s the perfect location. It’s right by the JFS (Jobs and Family Services). It’s close to the courthouse. It’s close to downtown. To me, it makes a good center hub for that,” Bittle said.
The former Pump House office building is located near the site of the former Pump House manufacturing building, demolished by Page Excavating in 2019. Clean up of the rubble still continues.
The initiative, led by the City of Ashland, is intended to transform Fourth Street from a one-way to a two-way street and to create an urban meadow.
“Coronavirus or not, life doesn’t stop in Ashland and we’re not signing off on our future because we might have to stay at home for another month,” said Mayor Matt Miller at the commissioners’ meeting Thursday.
He shared that private developers promising apartments and other investment in the Pump House District remain committed to their projects at this time.
The mayor also recalled his time as an Ashland County Commissioner, saying the decision at hand reminded him of one he made as a commissioner. He had supported a controversial move to purchase the dilapidated buildings at the corner of Main Street and Claremont Avenue and develop Corner Park in its place.
“I often think to myself how different our community would be if we hadn’t gone ahead and acted at that time even when we could have made every case in the world as to why we should put that money towards something else,” Miller said.
“But we decided to look towards the future. And now, countless people have benefitted from Corner Park, in fact, it’s hard to imagine not having it… Maybe this is a similar type decision.”
Welch likened the situation to a puzzle. Buying the former pump house office building would allow the county to move offices from the courthouse, which faces a less than ideal situation with its current setup. It’d also likely prompt the sale of the building that currently houses the County Health Department, Welch said.
“It’s all part of a puzzle, putting everything together so we can satisfy our needs from the courthouse, moving offices out of it. Everything has to fall in place,” he said.
Further, the funds are available and restricted to capital improvements. He and Bittle both believe those funds should be maintained in the capital projects fund and used for this project and others.
Justice, however, said the situation calls for unprecedented decisions.
“That money could and should be used in an emergency to keep people on instead of building buildings. I think county services are a lot more important than a building,” Justice said.
Funk warned employees could be laid off or need to drop to only four days a week. Cuts could need to be made. Commissioners are expected to meet with her next week.
“To me that’s just different than this. We can’t let the economy stop forward thinking that the community’s going to need in the future,” Bittle said. “If we were taking about a million dollars, I’d agree with him. We shouldn’t be spending a million dollars on something like this.”
Next, the county commissioners intend to collect community input for the buildings.
Bittle and Welch want to now if nonprofits would be interested in a portion of the space. They want to know what residents hope for the building. The timeline initially anticipated for 15,000 square-feet worth of county services to be relocated to the Orange Street building was two to three years.
“That’s still the goal,” Bittle said.
Ashland County resident Bill Chandler — the only non-elected official to offer an opinion at the meeting — praised the move, calling it “brilliant,” “forward-thinking” and “very good financial prudence.”
“I commend your thinking. I think it’s great to revitalize an asset,” Chandler said.
In other news at Thursday’s meeting:
– As of now, commissioners intend to continue in-person public meetings, according to Bittle. To move to a virtual platform could restrict access for some, he said.
Thursday morning, only 10 people were permitted within the room where commissioners meet at any given time. Because more than 10 attended, only nine were permitted to sit in the meeting space. This included the three commissioners, three local reporters and three others.
Additional people in attendance stood in the hallway and an adjacent office space. Doors to the hall and office stayed open so those in the other rooms could listen.
These individuals rotated in and out of the meeting space when addressing the commissioners.
One individual did express concern of being “unsafe” and opted to remain in the hallway while addressing the commissioners.
“We’re not allowing this many people in my office. So I’ll scream from here,” Funk said. “At the courthouse, we’re allowing two people in our office to come in, and my room is much bigger than yours,”
Two bottles of hand sanitizer were available.
– Commissioners authorized a release of mortgage to be processed for the property at 163 State Route 58, Sullivan. This is for Kenneth P. Twinning and Susan L. Twinning.
– Commissioners approved a contract with W.W. Williams for preventative maintenance and inspections of generators in the county office building, county garage and the service center for an annual cost of $2,105 and for the county jail at an annual cost of $1,135.
– Commissioners accepted the hiring of Cassandra Haight at the Department of Job and Family Services as a social worker 2, effective April 6.
– Commissioners approved advertising to accept bids until 9:15 a.m. Thursday, April 23 for the Hayesville Sidewalk Project.
– Commissioners approved an addendum to the contract between Ashland County Family and Children First Council and Ashland Parenting Plus, which was entered into on Dec. 19, 2019.
The addendum is to provide service coordination for families receiving social services from various public and private agencies in the county and to provide mentoring and parent education services.
– Commissioners canceled the board’s regular meeting for Tuesday, April 14. They considered the cancellation of another meeting, set for Tuesday, April 28, but did not cancel it at this time.
