NORWICH – Three options that were presented Tuesday for converting the former county jail and Sheriff’s Office on West Park Place into usable space left members of the Agriculture, Buildings & Grounds Committee scratching their heads.
An immediate need to heat both buildings before winter sets in only served to further muddle the situation.
Legislators pulled forth a 2001 resolution that would authorize them to tap a capital project account for a $28,000 boiler. The boiler would heat the portion of the building being used to house the county’s Emergency 911 communications system. The Chenango County Department of Social Services will pick up the tab for three residential units that will heat the programming space currently being renovated from the former dormitory and inmate recreation/visitors room.
The 911 system will stay in the former Sheriff’s Office for at least two more years while new towers are erected and/or converted throughout the county.
“We need to move on this. There’s no time to wait for the full board to meet in November,” said Chairman of the Board Richard E. Decker, R-North Norwich. Between 12 and 14 county employees are expected to occupy the 103-year-old jail this month.
Town of Oxford Supervisor Lawrence Wilcox asked if the unit would be large enough to use later on. “I’d rather spend more on a bigger unit than have to replace this one, if and when we should decide to do the renovations,” he said.
The committee agreed to authorize the buildings and grounds supervisor to purchase the boiler immediately and to install DSS’ units.
The architectural options offered by John Snyder Architects ranged in price from $2.4 million to demolish the jail cells and separate the structures into two distinct office buildings, to $3.3 million to leave the cells for storage purposes and construct a multi-leveled ramped interior corridor linking the two buildings. A third option called for demolishing the jail cells but keeping the circulation corridor. Among other items, all three would require an elevator, handicapped accessible egresses, new roofs, exterior and interior renovations, and new heating, cooling, electrical and plumping systems.
The architectural firm was hired late last spring for $7,500 to complete design concepts and drawings for possible uses and to provide cost estimates.
The supervisors were surprised to learn that demolishing the jail cells would be less expensive than leaving them intact. Supervisor Dennis Brown, D-Pharsalia, said the cells “would have licked” the county’s records storage problem.
“But not for $1.5 million,” Supervisor Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, said.
The cost of building the same space new would cost $135 to $150 a square foot. “It’s a little over that for renovating an old building,” Snyder said. The least expensive options presented would carve out 10,000 square feet versus 15,529 square feet for the more expensive option.
County leaders have been uncertain about the fate of the two structures since deciding to build a new Public Safety Facility outside the county seat. A myriad of ideas were passed around the table yesterday, from selling one or both of the buildings commercially, to refurbishing only the exteriors, to moving Mental Health Services, the Office for Employment and Training and the Law Library into the renovated offices. County taxpayers currently pay rent elsewhere to house those programs and services.
“We need to know what we’re renovating it for,” said Linda E. Natoli, R-City of Norwich. “We have to zero-in on an idea. It could be perfect for the court system.”
In early 2005, lawmakers decided not to spend $40,000 on a consultant to determine whether the jail and sheriff’s offices could be renovated for use by the county’s courts. The courts have outgrown space in the County Office Building, and a second county judge is needed, Russ Osechle, an administrator from the New York State Office of Court Administration, told members of the Buildings and Grounds Committee in August 2004.
The county is legally responsible for finding space for court facilities.
Brown asked the committee chairman to contact Osechle about the court’s current interest. Chairman Robert Briggs, R-Afton, said they had recently contacted him to request more room on the third floor of the Office Building.
“We can’t forget the other option is to tear it down,” Janice O’Shea, R-Coventry, said. “Do we need 10,000 square feet more of office space in the county?”
“Nobody has shown me that we need it yet,” Flanagan said.
Supervisors Natoli and Brown, however, said razing the structures was not a viable option.
“If we had maintained those pillars and put in new heating systems like we had authorized years and years ago, we wouldn’t be in the terrible situation we are in now with that building,” Natoli said.
Decker suggested taking time to look at all of the options, perhaps months.
“The exterior is less. Let’s commit to doing the outside first,” Brown said. No action was taken on the architectural plans.
In other committee news, members agreed to accept bids for 228 acres on Upper Ravine Road in the Town of Norwich. “We’ve been sitting on this surplus property for seven years. Why don’t we sell it?” Flanagan asked. The committee agreed. The property will be advertised sometime after the beginning of the year.
The old jail was built in 1903 for $31,000.