McPherson noted the current location offers veterans easy access to the parking garage and spaces just steps from the office door. He added the majority of veterans entering the agency have mobility issues.
The location on High Street has “hit or miss street parking” with most of the patrons using the former Elder-Beerman parking lot behind the building.
“To go from this parking lot to the entrance doors of 130 High St. building requires a walk up a relatively steep incline on North Front Street,” McPherson wrote. “Again, we are talking about elderly clients with canes, walkers and wheelchairs where distance and weather conditions could add to the risk of falling, causing serious injury.”
Other considerations, McPherson said, includes the need for confidentiality of clients in the veterans service office that may not be possible in cubicles at other locations. He said many veterans, especially those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other combat-related disorders may not feel comfortable walking into a large building with other visitors shuffling around.
“The letter was not written to be vicious,” McPherson said. “But it was meant to be a way to make people aware.”
The proposal is part of an ongoing space and facilities usage evaluation by Lorenz and Williams Architects in Dayton, the firm that designed the government services center. The county commissioners employed the firm early this year to conduct the study.
A state performance audit released last year found the county could be overpaying for its office space by more that $260,000 a year and the commissioners are looking to the study for guidance to operate more efficiently with the space they own.
But Commission President Don Dixon said nothing about the draft proposal is set in stone and in fact should not have been released.
“This is putting the cart before the horse,” Dixon said Monday.
He added the county does have a lot of extra space and “we are looking into how best to utilize that space.”
But consolidation will not be done until the space study is complete, every department is consulted and the commission as a whole has considered the options.
“This is all being blown out of proportion right now,” Dixon said.
He added the end result will not be so much about moving departments but consolidating for better use of space.
“It is about reducing expenses and saving tax dollars,” Dixon said, adding departments are not going to be moved just for the sake of shuffling them around.
Commissioner Charles Furmon said he found the facility management study dated June 28 on his desk in the commission office and shared it with the veterans services commission.
Furmon pointed to Commissioner Cindy Carpenter as the developer of the plan to move offices, which includes not only the veterans service commission but the treasurer’s and prosecutor’s offices.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Furmon said. “She (Carpenter) assumes she has authority she doesn’t have. This is something that should been considered by the whole commission.”
Carpenter said Furmon’s assumptions are just not true.
She said the June 28 document was developed from notes at a meeting with the architects and county officials.
“It is a working document,” Carpenter said, noting the study is ongoing and will eventually include facts gathered by the architects including measuring square footage of offices to see if consolidation is feasible.
Carpenter said the facilities plan that is adopted will be as cost effective as possible and consider a reasonable, efficient plan for county departments.
When completed, the final plan will save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and eliminate some of the expensive leased spaces, she said.
County Administrator Charles Young said he has met with McPherson and members of the veterans service commission and explained the report is just a starting point to consider facility options.
“We are doing a study to save money and consolidate departments were we can,” Young said. “We have to take a whack at it and prepare a working document. It does not represent the final thought or purpose.”
Young stressed, “it is a starting point and there are a lot of discussions to be had.”
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