County will look further into Orchard Hill alternatives

WASHINGTON — Members of the Washington County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday said they’d pursue more information on possible locations for administrative offices as officials plan a move out of the courthouse.

While some decision-makers remain skeptical of any destination other than Orchard Hill, Supervisor Richard Young said he wanted more information before making the call.

“It comes down to financial responsibility, what is the best financial responsibility to this county?” Young said. “I’m not willing to make any decisions before I know all the financial responsibilities. I need to know what everything’s going to cost us, and that’s what we’re working on.”

The board took no action at its regular meeting last week, instead directing Supervisor Marcus Fedler to meet with consultants and put numbers together for a renovation of the former Federation Bank Building, and a “Plan B” that would move lower-traffic offices from the courthouse to Orchard Hill.

The decision means more waiting on an issue that has pit county decision-makers against a vocal group of constituents, the likes of which include Washington city officials and Chamber of Commerce representatives, as well as a handful of outspoken county residents, in and out of town.

At Tuesday’s meeting, those critics continued to call on supervisors to hold off on Orchard Hill renovations, estimated to cost at least as much as the local government’s remaining $4 million of ARPA money.

The most oft-repeated reason for pause is a fear that county offices which moved out of the courthouse would take much of the Washington square’s business traffic with them.

"We are only as strong as our weakest link,“ said Lorraine Williams, the owner of Washington’s Dodici restaurants, who many community members cite as a key player in Washington’s economic revitalization. ”We cannot stop this momentum … I have stayed open through thick and thin, but other stores, if they don’t have the business, they can only do what they can do. We will have open storefronts.“

In a follow-up interview, Fedler said a middle ground option was starting to materialize, but said he was still waiting on plans and cost estimates from contractors.

That “Plan B” would keep core administrative offices — those of the County Auditor, Recorder and Treasurer — at the courthouse, but relocate others, like the Supervisor office, the GIS office, some storage, or a roomful of IT-run servers, out to Orchard Hill in an effort to free up space in the historical building.

“I think that’s the crux of the issue,” Fedler said. “When we hear the people talking about it, they say, ‘Well, we don’t really care if it’s Federation Bank or some other combination of things, we just want those three departments to stay downtown.”

While Supervisors Stan Stoops and Bob Yoder have voiced support for solutions centered on the former Federation Bank Building, Fedler and Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said they were still skeptical of adding square footage to the county’s portfolio.

Fedler said the finances didn’t work out, even if purchasing the five-story building would save taxpayers the cost of rent for Public Health’s office space, already at the location. He said the cost of renovation, maintenance and no-longer taxable property would ultimately drain money.

“Owning a building isn’t free, owning square footage has the necessity to also take care of it,” he said. “At (15 years) we’d have lost $450,000, roughly in tax revenue, for the county … and then we have a $40-some-thousand-dollar-a-year maintenance cost.”

In a follow-up interview, Fedler said similar financial concerns likely ruled out a proposal for a Chamber-proposed new office building north of the Washington County Courthouse, where contractors recently tore down a vacant emergency service building.

Some critics of Orchard Hill have also started walking back pitches to use Federation Bank. Karen Bates Chabal, a Washington business owner who helped organize resistance to the initial facility plan, said she was pushing for compromise.

“People don’t want to have their county services moved to the edge of town, that was abundantly clear at the listening session,” she said. “The right plan may not be Federation Bank, it may be something different. But what you are hearing from your constituents, the residents of this county, is that they don’t want these services to leave the center of town.”

Seward said he understood the worries of downtown business-owners but remained strongly in the camp of the original facility plan, which would move most department offices out of the county courthouse and into Orchard Hill after renovations to both buildings.

“I’m willing to listen to anybody, anytime, but I still am the one that’s charged with making that final decision,” he said. “I think it’s not the position of government to do things to help businesses. It’s my position that government should stay out of the way of the private sector, and not pick winners and losers.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com