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| 12/21/2007 4:12:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Questions grow about Department on Aging building project
Supervisors, staff want co-location of facilities considered
A growing number of Oneida County officials are urging a second look at plans for a new Department on Aging facility and senior center, with some saying the co-location of government buildings near the law enforcement center on Winnebago Street in Rhinelander would be more efficient and fiscally responsible.
County clerk Bob Bruso first raised the issue at a Nov. 26 meeting of the Department on Aging Building Committee, asking that panel to consider all the space needs of the county before making a final decision about its own plans. That committee is considering potential building sites and existing buildings for a much larger senior center and agency facility.
The likely addition of a third county judge could complicate courthouse logistics and eliminate meeting rooms, Bruso said.
This week, buildings and grounds director Curt Krouze relayed a similar message to his committee of jurisdiction from supervisor Ted Cushing, a member of the building committee.
"I have a request from Ted Cushing that this committee take a look at any other needs the county might have, specifically, space needs at the courthouse, for Haz-Mat, and for law enforcement," Krouze said. "If we look at a new structure [for the Department on Aging], do we want to co-manage some of these issues, or are they separate issues?"
That sparked a lively discussion among committee members about future county needs and expansion plans. Emergency management director Ken Kortenhof, sheriff Jeff Hoffman, and chief deputy John Sweeney were also present to discuss their ideas.
And I'm getting old
Krouze talked about increasingly deteriorating storage facilities on River Street, used now to house Department on Aging buses, Haz-Mat vehicles and equipment, and various sheriff's department items.
"There are issues with these two buildings," he said. "The structures were aging when we got them [in 1997]. The front building is energy inefficient. The quality is quite poor in the rear building, too, which ponds with water much of the year. So, if we build or renovate a structure, do we want to include these needs along with the needs of the Department on Aging?"
Krouze told supervisors the idea would be to co-locate county facilities that are now scattered around the area, sometimes across town from where the related agencies are sited.
What's more, he told supervisors, high ground is still available for building at the law enforcement center and on 80 acres of county-owned land adjacent to the law enforcement property.
"The whole purpose, the driving force, of getting that 80 acres, which has about eight acres of high ground, was to acquire it with the idea that if we had a future need, we could co-locate things that are being stored into one location," he said.
Krouze said about 13 or 14 buildable acres remain around the law enforcement center and on the adjacent property, and he said the River Street site was always meant to be temporary.
"When I started here nine years ago, I was told that this building was a stop-gap measure until we could do something better," he said. "And that is still where we are."
A solid advocate
Supervisor Charles Wickman suggested that funds could be raised for new facilities at the law enforcement center by selling the River Street property, which he deemed to be a prime commercial location, while throughout the meeting supervisor Scott Holewinski pushed strongly for co-location.
"Maybe this isn't just a Department on Aging project but a county project, and maybe we need to look at all our needs before we build some glory project somewhere," Holewinski said.
Both Hoffman and Sweeney said the sheriff's department needed more storage. They said they kept nothing of real value in the River Street facility - only property they might need to produce in court - and had stopped leasing storage space, as the county requested.
Sweeney said the growing preparedness of the county's emergency management system - with additional but necessary vehicles - had increased storage and garage needs; the sheriff's department also needed a "good spot" to properly store radio and communications equipment, he said.
"It gets into efficiency and effectiveness," Sweeney said. "We've maximized [our space] and maximized. We've been told to be patient, and we have been. We've made it a number of years. The county should be doing this right, when investing in the facilities with the Department on Aging, for matters of efficiency and effectiveness."
During the planning process a decade ago for the law enforcement center, the idea was always to situate county government as much as possible in that one vicinity, Sweeney said.
"At every meeting I attended, I was told that future county government would be located at that spot, and that that was why we chose that spot," he said.
Not jiving
Holewinski said the Department on Aging's separate initiative ran counter to discussions he has had during his three terms on the board.
"I was always told that we would incorporate the needs of the sheriff's department for extra storage space, and everything would be done as one project, and then the Department on Aging used their money and did a study and it seems like they didn't consider the whole picture," he said.
Krouze said he had shown the law enforcement land and adjacent property to those involved with conducting the Department on Aging facility needs study - conducted by Wipfli LLP and Hoffman LLC - but they weren't interested.
Holewinski said the Department on Aging needed to address future services, and he recommended that its building committee incorporate other county needs into its plans.
"We've got two different committees going in two different directions," he said. "It's fair to say that emergency management needs [more space] for Haz-Mat and the sheriff's department needs more storage and it could all be incorporated into this one building project if they just tried."
Everybody benefits
Krouze said co-location would be a win-win situation.
"When you can co-locate needs together, there are big economies of scale and big savings for the county and for taxpayers," he said. "When you spread things out, it costs more to heat and it costs more for maintenance. There are savings [in co-location] for sure."
Krouze had asked if the buildings and grounds committee was interested in a joint meeting with the Department on Aging building committee, but Holewinski thought such a meeting would not accomplish much.
Instead, the committee approved Holewinski's motion to have Krouze continue to attend building committee meetings and to advise that body of other departmental needs, as well as of the concerns of the buildings and grounds committee.
At the end of the discussion, Holewinski summed up those concerns:
"It's only a matter of time before emergency management and the sheriff's department come to us for their improvements," he said. "We should look at co-location. That's what was talked about for years until the Department on Aging pulled out with their little committee."
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