That decision will depend on the cost estimate drawn up by Troy architect Candace Goodall, said John “Bud” O’Brien, commission president.
Upper floor offices at the Hobart Center, the former office building for Hobart Brothers Co., will become the home for the county Children’s Services department when the county closes the former county home on Troy-Sidney Road at year’s end.
The commission announced in mid-July the aging building would be closed to save annual operating expenses of about $75,000 plus avoid more than $400,000 in needed structural repairs.
The Hobart Center’s upper floor was used by the Miami County Educational Services Center until it built a new home off Stanfield Road. It also is used now as offices for two small agencies, Help Me Grow and Family and Children First, and for storage units.
The logical place to move those offices would be a renovated basement in the same building, O’Brien said. Plus, he said, renovation also could help provide office space for Miami County Coroner Dr. Bruce Nordquist.
Nordquist has asked for a county office, while past coroners have worked primarily from their homes.
The Hobart building’s first floor is occupied by several offices, including the health department and the county planning and zoning department. The county renovated the first and second floors on obtaining the building in the late 1990s.
The commission voted last week to pay $8,760 to Goodall for architectural/design services for alterations to the building’s basement and second floor.
The former county home also houses offices of the county transit operation, which will be moved to a new home to be built with stimulus money near the county Incarceration Facility north of Troy, and the Community Action Council. The CAC is not a county agency, and is reviewing options for its offices.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2292 or nbowman@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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