Allen County Commissioner Brian Winegardner gave a “state of the county” presentation to the Lima Rotary Club on Monday at the City Club in downtown Lima.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — With work set to begin soon on a new county administration building in downtown Lima, Allen County commissioners brought community members up to speed on that and other happenings in the county at Monday’s Lima Rotary Club meeting.
Monday’s meeting allowed commissioners to give a “state of the county” address, outlining what their board does in the county and what projects they have on the horizon. When it comes to what the public can expect in the future as far as capital projects, two projects were featured more prominently in Monday’s address, the first being the new county office building set to be constructed at the site of the former Hofeller, Hiatt and Clark clothing shop at the corner of North and Main streets in downtown Lima.
“Every year, what we do is look at the buildings overall and the infrastructure that is in Allen County as far as buildings and properties,” Commissioner Brian Winegardner said. “So we have a plan in place to address those, but recently we’ve discovered that the courthouse needs some work. It is not very user-friendly, not just for the employees but also for the general public.”
That need is where the new building will come in, Winegardner said, as the new space will allow county agencies currently in the courthouse, along with the domestic relations court, to move to the new three-story, 30,000-square-foot office while the courthouse interior is renovated to where all county courts can be housed there.
“We want it to be a true courthouse in Allen County,” Winegardner said.
The $16.9 million building project is expected to see demolition begin this spring and the new building constructed and ready to occupy by spring 2026. Funding for this building project is being provided through American Rescue Plan Act funding, meaning that no new debt is being incurred, according to Commissioner Cory Noonan.
“We’ll be able to pay for that one in cash,” he said.
The second project discussed, however, will require some borrowing. This one involves the Savings Building on the corner of West Market and North Elizabeth streets, which houses the Allen County Child Support Enforcement Agency. The historic downtown building, which also houses private entities as well as the county agency, is in need of renovation, with preliminary estimates putting the cost for renovating the interior at under $10 million, but that number is still subject to change.
“With the administration building, we have a deadline on when it has to be done [due to ARPA funding],” Noonan said. “This is now maybe two or three laps behind that one.”
That project is still in its planning stages, including working with the other agencies inside the building on how the renovation will take place, but Noonan anticipates that there will be some overlap when it comes to work taking place at each project.
As far as funding the Savings Building project, the board has dedicated millage funds that are intended to pay down debt when it is incurred.
“We have a dedicated source of funds that come in that have to be used to pay for debt, and we’ve been fortunate to where we’ve built that up a bit, so we should be able to make a decent down payment,” Noonan said. “So if our crystal ball works out correctly, by the time this is done and the moving happens at the Savings Building, that should be paid off or close to being paid off.”
