No mortgage, lease, loan or debt will be hanging over the heads of county taxpayers when the new $3.5 million Bartholomew County Court Services building opens within a month or two.
It’s all part of a plan that will save up to $750,000 in public funds in the long term, county officials say.
“We will be paying off the building upon completion, instead of making payments on it,” council member Jorge Morales said.
Normally, Court Services is considered a function of county government, often relying on state and federal grants to fund various programs. Under normal circumstances, the city is under no obligation to finance operations of court services.
But in an two-year-old agreement, the new Court Services building became a joint city/county project after land swaps were tied into the negotiations.
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission agreed to pay the first $1.5 million, while the county agreed to pick up the remaining $2 million, commissioner Chairman Carl Lienhoop said. As part of the deal, the county received the land on the south side of First Street, across from the county jail, for the new court services building and a small parking lot.
In return, the city will receive the county-owned block surrounded by Second, Franklin, Third and Lafayette streets. Plans are to eventually tear down the current court services building (the former Elks Club at 507 Third St.) and utilize the empty block for a future hotel and conference center.
Although the redevelopment commission agreed to finance the $2 million for the county’s portion of the bill, both the Bartholomew County Council and the county commissioners are now saying “thanks, but no thanks.”
Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz calculated that if his unit of government financed their portion of the costs through the city, the county would pay up to about $750,000 over the next 15 years in interest-payments alone.
Under the circumstances, it was an expense that makes no sense, Kleinhenz said.
“Let me remind you that you have $10 million in reserve funds, as well as $13 million of unappropriated money in the county’s general fund,” Bartholomew County Auditor Pia O’Connor said.
In addition, county government receives approximately $2.3 million annually into the County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT ) fund, Kleinhenz said. However, no more that $800,000 is spent each year for building improvements and maintenance from that fund, he added.
“The county is in relatively good finance shape,” Lienhoop said.
For those reasons, the commissioners announced they will inform the city that financing will not be needed by county government because the county intends to pay off the entire $2 million immediately after the project is completed.
Due to a requirement for advance public notification, no formal vote could be taken on the matter. However, an informal consensus was reached Tuesday that allows the county to make the city aware of their intentions.
Some form of notification to the city needs to be made quickly because the redevelopment commission is in the process of drawing up documents that includes issues with the deed and the lease agreement, Kleinhenz said.
“If we are going to pay them all off, that will change things (in the paperwork),” he said.
When council members asked if the Court Services Building was eligible for funding through the American Relief Plan (ARP), county auditor Pia O’Connor said it was not because the city/county deal was made in 2020. Only projects that originated after the Biden Administration began the COVID-19 relief fund program are eligible for ARP money, she said.
With the loss of the current parking lot north of the jail, the original deal signed by the county commissioners promised about 100 spaces in a new parking garage for county employees that will be located in the southeast corner of the Bartholomew County Jail lot, Lienhoop said.
But that idea may run into resistance after two council members stated Tuesday they would prefer not to construct parking garages.
The opening of the new Court Services Center will be just one of the latest new building or facility remodeling projects that have been made in recent years. The largest was the recently completed $8.4 million Bartholomew County Highway Garage east of Petersville.
But there was also:Last summer’s acquisition of a larger building at 2625 Foxpointe Drive for the nursing division of the county health department.
Extensive courtroom remodeling and the high-tech upgrade of county courtrooms in 2020 and 2021.
The largest remodeling of the Bartholomew County Governmental Office building in 40 years in early 2020.
The 2017 acquistion of the former Premier Ag building at 783 S. MarrRoad to house the local Purdue Extension Office and the Bartholomew County Soil and Water Conservation District.
The county has hired Brian Russell of the Columbus-based Russell Development Company to put the former health department building, also on Foxpointe Drive, on the market.
“We anticipate we will get $650,000 to $700,000 out of it,” Kleinhenz said.
After the council asked about significant upcoming projects, the commissioners said $200,000 will be spent to widen County Road 525E in the vicinity where it goes by the entrance to CERAland Park, as well as 27 miles of overlay work that was originally supposed to cost about $2 million.
“But due to inflation, we are expecting the cost to rise to $2.3 to $2.5 million,” Kleinhenz said. “So we’ll have to make the decision of whether to cut back on miles, or whether we have sufficient CEDIT funds to pay for the entire overlay project.”
In the long term, the county plans to build a new salt barn at the new county highway facility, as well as secure long-term storage space for paper records, the commissioners said.
