By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – Berrien County Commissioners continue to look to the future with work being done on a new strategic plan as well as the development of a new county facilities master plan.
At last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the focus was on county facilities and what renovations and repairs may be needed in coming years. More presentations on facilities are expected in coming weeks.
Consultant Tony McGhee of Abonmarche presented preliminary results of the work his firm and Pearson Construction have done on the last few months. He noted that his firm and Pearson Construction have collaborated on the study which is still ongoing with the goal of analyzing what needs to be done and how much it will cost.
Work being done now is focusing on the condition and safety of county facilities which is the first phase. The second phase will be assessing buildings for space and programming needs and will be done in six to eight weeks. The final phase will be bringing all the information together in a comprehensive facilities master plan.
McGhee said Abonmarche and Pearson began working on the facilities master plan last fall and will be continuing to work on it for the next couple of months. He said Pearson is involved because of their knowledge of the county buildings, having worked on them for decades.
The facilities master plan will guide county officials in how to keep county buildings operating efficiently over the next 10 to 15 years. The plan will also serve to help county officials know how much American Rescue Plan Act funds will be used on facilities and how much will be set aside for capital improvement budgets.
“The benefits of doing this is that it translates into a vision and goals and helps guide investments in various communities,” he said. “Once in place, the plan can be easily updated on a regular basis, it will be a living document and a framework for investments in the future.”
McGhee noted that the county maintains nearly 60 buildings in 11 different communities around the county which is more than many larger counties have. The space occupied by all those buildings total over 700,000 square feet on over 16 acres.
Last week’s presentation concentrated on the county’s public safety, court, road and administration buildings. A future presentation will focus on the health department, parks and recreation and cultural resources. In most instances, he noted that the cost of renovations and repairs is much cheaper than building a new facility.
He did give a few examples like the Juvenile Center and Truancy Academy in Berrien Township where it would be better to build new. In one instance, the old Animal Control building in Berrien Township, he suggested demolishing it as that department has a new home and the old building is in bad shape.
County Administrator Brian Dissette said county commissioners have a couple of years to find a solution there since questions remain on the fate of the larger property there that once housed Berrien General Hospital.
McGhee reported that the Courthouse in St. Joseph and the South County Building in Niles are both in pretty good shape although there are areas where repairs and updates are needed.
He outlined over $9 million worth of repairs to the courthouse and $1.2 million worth of work needed at the south county building. In contrast, it would cost between $31 million and $44 million to replace the courthouse and $13 million or more to replace the south county building.
The Berrien County Jail in St. Joseph was built in 1952 with an addition done in 1980. He said it will need $14.7 million worth of repairs in the next 15 years to continue operating, while it would cost $50 million to $70 million to replace it.
He also spoke about the County Administration Building in St. Joseph which is housed in a former elementary school. He said the building needs repairs in several areas including security. He estimated it will cost $2.4 million to make repairs which is much less than the $10 million to $14 million it would take to replace it.
McGhee gave an overview of the county’s six road department garages which are currently located in Baroda, Watervliet, Eau Claire, Benton Harbor, Buchanan and Three Oaks. They each need a variety of work and for the most part would cost more to replace than repair.
Comments after the presentation centered on a couple of areas. Commissioner Jon Hinkelman suggested that the county board get input from the road department as to their thoughts on consolidating road department garages into one central facility or at least fewer.
The other area brought up was to know the value of county owned properties such as the courthouse and jail if the decision was made to build new facilities elsewhere. Dissette said he could have that information available fairly quickly for commissioners to study.
“It may or may not make sense, but we need to know,” Hinkelman said.
Dissette and commissioners acknowledged that building new facilities could cost $100 million or more. Dissette said the county board has to decide whether there’s an appetite to take on such a large amount of longterm debt.
He noted that the good news is that the county could easily justify spending a large part of its $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds on fixing and maintaining facilities rather than building new. The issue is expected to come up again at the March 3 Committee of the Whole Meeting.
The county board has been discussing how to spend the ARPA funds for several months. It has been suggested that the county split up the ARPA funds with $6 million spent on high speed internet, $14 million on amenities, water quality and trails, $6 million on road projects and $3.8 million on administrative projects and unforeseen expenditures.
The county board has already taken steps in one of the areas, high speed internet and rural broadband. Earlier this month, they approved an application form that local townships can fill out to apply for funds. Some local officials have said they’d like to see a countywide comprehensive strategy developed to get broadband out to all parts of the county.
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