The presentation of a long-awaited, five-year capital maintenance and improvement plan drew strong praise from the Bartholomew County Council.
Drawn up by the Bartholomew County Commissioners, the $15.28 million plan outlines a timetable and cost estimates regarding renovations, upgrades or replacement of county-owned facilities such as the county jail, county highway garage and Bartholomew County Courthouse. It allocates spending of at least $3 million for each of five years.
But the 21-page document also was intended to give a sobering reminder of how costly it is to care for 10 county-owned buildings, as well as facilities such as the Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans, commissioner Rick Flohr said.
“It’s a lot of money, a lot of real estate — and a lot of problems,” Flohr told the county council during its Tuesday meeting.
The commissioners emphasized that the plan will be subject to frequent updates, and may be altered or delayed in order to address unforeseen issues.
Jail
In the plan, the commissioners are recommending an $800,000 investment into a new audio/visual surveillance system at the county jail this year, as well as $200,000 in upgrades to cell blocks in the currently unused, 100-capacity older section of the jail.
All current efforts are being done to ensure the jail is prepared for when the council chooses options to address consistent overcrowding issues, commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
For that same reason, the commissioners approved about $40,000 worth of immediate jail improvements during their meeting on Monday. The items include a state-requested lighting update ($26,797), replacement of an air conditioning condenser coil ($7,885), installing state-required partitions for a inmate shower area ($3,210), and replacement of generator batteries ($2,111).
Longer-term and more expensive plans call for a $4 million replacement of the jail’s heating and air conditioning systems in 2019. Another $600,000 will have to be spent two years later to address deterioration under the domed outdoor recreation area on the jail’s roof.
Highway garage
The plan shows the commissioners are poised to invest about $1.5 million this year into soft costs and start-up expenses for a new Bartholomew County Highway Garage. It will be up to the council to determine a combination of bonding and income tax revenue to fund both the jail improvements and garage replacement.
In February 2017, the 66-year-old garage was described as functionally obsolete in a report issued by DLZ Indiana Inc., an Indianapolis engineering and architectural firm.
Essentially ruling out renovation as an alternative, the DLZ report estimated replacement costs at $10 million to $11.2 million. But both the council and commissioners agree it can be built for considerably less money.
The ideal amount to bond the garage is $8 million, according to the commissioners’ plan. Interest rates are still at unusually low levels, and construction costs will increase 2.5 percent annually if they hold off the project, the plan stated.
“If we wait five years, the increased cost will be $1 million,” the plan stated.
But most council members remain concerned that the county still has $15 million left to pay over the next nine years before a bond that financed an $18.5 million jail expansion in 2008 is retired.
“We know that support for the highway garage is all over the place,” said Kleinhenz, who told the council the commissioners prefer to wait until at least May to discuss their highway garage plans more in depth.
Courthouse
When DLZ issued its facilities report early last year, consultants estimated the cost of necessary repairs to the Bartholomew County Courthouse at $2.4 million to $3.2 million.
The new plan issued by the commissioners calls for spreading out those repairs over the next five years.
For example, they recommend spending $500,000 this year to replace an underground chiller and two boilers that control heating and air conditioning in the courthouse.
An additional $100,000 will be spent to upgrade the building’s electrical system this year.
The first of a two-phase effort to replace courthouse windows will begin next year, and conclude in 2020, the plan stated. Each phase is estimated to cost about $600,000.
In addition, the commissioners anticipate spending another $600,000 for courthouse roof repairs in 2019.
But efforts to address significant erosion to the courthouse limestone foundation, as well as upper level brickwork, will be delayed until 2022, the plan stated. Exterior and facade repairs are expected to cost about $1.5 million.
Court Services
A revelation surfaced Tuesday regarding the county-owned block north of the jail that contains about 200 parking spaces, as well as the Bartholomew County Court Services Center on the northwest corner.
That entire block is considered extremely valuable, and could potentially rake in a substantial profit if the county decided to sell it, commissioner Carl Lienhoop told the council.
During the past seven years, the commissioners have met at least three times with interested developers or their agents who would like to construct a mix of retail and housing units similar to the downtown Cole apartment building on that block, Kleinhenz and Lienhoop told the council.
Such a sale would mean demolition of the 104-year-old former Elks Lodge building, which would necessitate securing a new location for Court Services operations, Lienhoop said.
“While the building has served us well, it is not as versatile and user-friendly as we would like,” Lienhoop said.
But a key factor that has prevented serious consideration is the prospect of losing the parking spaces for county employees, Lienhoop said.
If a parking garage were placed in the middle of the complex, similar to what the Cole building has, the county would still need 200 of the spaces, Lienhoop said.
In addition, no developer seems willing to pay what the commissioners consider adequate compensation for the loss of both the building and the parking spaces, Flohr said.
But that might change if the century-old Court Services building requires unanticipated expensive upgrades or repairs, Kleinhenz said.
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Besides anticipated expenses, the five-year Capital Maintenance and Improvement Plan also reveals two county-owned buildings that either are currently generating revenue to offset taxpayer expense, or are anticipated to do so in the near future.
- $42,000 in revenue is being collected annually by renting out space at the Public Nursing division of the Bartholomew County Health Department, 2675 Foxpointe Drive. The tenants are identified as Select Physical Therapy and Estes Neuropsychology.
- Between $46,000 and $48,000 may soon be collected annually by renting space at the Bartholomew County Extension Office, 785 S. Marr Road. Although Bartholomew County Soil and Water Conservation has frequently been mentioned as a likely tenant, commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said negotiations are ongoing.
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