Bartholomew County Council members this week heard an update on the ongoing discussion about what to do about the aging Bartholomew County Youth Services Center.
The five-decade-plus old building is used to house juvenile offenders, provides temporary shelter for abused and neglected children and offers various programs, including counseling, among other services.
Just over two months ago, the commissioners approved funding for a second proposal through engineering consultant DLZ Indiana.
DLZ already completed one proposal, but the council wanted another with a less expensive end-result.
County officials said the first proposal included details about a new, 22,000-square-foot facility at the existing site that would cost upwards of $20 million.
Council member Mark Gorbett, R-District 3, and Council President Leah Beyer, R-District 2, over the past month have met with Bartholomew County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin, who oversees court services, representatives from the youth services center and architects to consider different options.
One is DLZ’s initial proposal, and another would be a 17,000-square-foot facility. Gorbett said there is also consideration about whether to keep the center at its current site off Illinois Avenue, or potentially find a new one.
“There’s three or four potential options out there,” Gorbett said of different sites. “And we’re looking at the numbers right now and the pros and cons of each of those locations.”
That could involve a land swap with the city or Columbus Regional Health, Gorbett said.
The next step will take place during the budget process for 2026, which gets started next month to get an idea of “what our next five years looks like and what we can and can’t afford,” Gorbett said, adding they hope to land on a final proposal after budget time.
County officials are evaluating services provided at the center, and weighing which ones could be cut in order to make a more-scaled down version feasible.
One idea is outsourcing the center’s youth detention facilities for a couple of years while a new center is being built, although Beyer said that’s not as simple as it sounds.
“Say we built on the site that we’re at and tore it down and rebuilt— it’s not easy to just pick up the phone and be like, ‘Hey, we have five juveniles that need detention. Can you take them?’” Beyer said. “The cost of not knowing where juveniles will have to be shipped off to can be expensive.”
The group also noted that the county is near paying off its jail bond, and will plan to work in conjunction with auditor Pia O’Connor to see what the county can afford without raising taxes.
The current Bartholomew County Youth Services Center was originally constructed as the Bartholomew County Children’s Home. It was built to replace the Frances Comfort Thomas Children’s Home built at 141 S. Cherry St. in 1892.
Built at a cost of $396,000, the children’s home opened on Aug 1, 1967. It wasn’t until October, 1992, that the facility became the Bartholomew County Youth Services Center, operating under the direction of former judge Steve Heimann. In January 2013, the youth services center came under the umbrella of court services.
