Commissioners share details on County projects at Business Compass

ROAMING SHORES – In what has been an annual tradition, the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners spoke at the January Business Compass hosted by the Rock Creek Area Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Jan. 16.
This year for the first time, the program was held at Paradise Bay, 414 Geneva Point, Roaming Shores.
During the program, Ashtabula County Commissioners Casey Kozlowski, J.P. Ducro IV and Kathryn Whittington discussed recent projects in the County and the county’s plans for 2026.
Kozlowski, who is president of the Board of Commissioners for 2026, spoke first.
“We always enjoy the opportunity to come out to the Rock Creek/Roaming Shores area to do this presentation,” Kozlowski said. “We’ve been doing this since 2017, since all three of us were seated and this new board was formed.”
He spoke first of the Ashtabula County Public Safety Center project.
“This has been a long-standing project in our county,” Kozlowski said. “We’ve probably been working on a new County jail close to 10 years.”
Over the years, it has morphed into several different ideas, he said.
What they’re working on implementing now is expanding the current facility.
“In essence, build a new facility adjacent to our existing Sheriff’s Office on our existing County Courthouse footprint in Jefferson,” Kozlowski said.
He said the jail is expected to be about 55,000 square feet, with a roughly 1.5-story mezzanine-style facility.
“Our current jail is a multi-story facility. And one thing that we have learned as we’ve been working through a lot of planning on operating a new facility is that a multi-story facility is probably one of the most operationally inefficient ways to operate a jail, because you have to staff it on every level,” Kozlowski said.
He said they’ve also learned that, when you’re operating a jail, “the construction is actually the easy part.”
“It’s being able to afford to maintain and operate a facility in the long-term [that’s the hard part], because every employee comes at a cost,” Kozlowski said. “Each position that’s required to operate a facility would have long-term implications, so you want to make sure that the facility is as staffing-efficient as possible, so we can afford to maintain and operate it in the long term.”
He said the new jail will help meet the corrections needs for the County in the 21st century.
“When our jail was built in the late ‘70s, corrections was much different than how corrections operate today. At that time, individuals would serve one day short of one year in the facility. That was the maximum amount of time they could serve in a county jail. The laws have changed since then. Now they can serve just short of two years of their sentence in the county jail. But many times also, individuals are sitting there waiting for court hearings or any number of things before they even go to trial, and that’s independent of their actual scheduled sentence time,” Kozlowski said.
He said the county actually never finished building the jail in the ’70s.
“We’ve been kind of making due with what we have since the late ‘70s, and it’s been undersized to meet the needs that exist in our county today,” Kozlowski said.
Pre-COVID, they had upwards of 170-plus inmates in the facility.
“We were licensed with the State to house 109,” Kozlowski said.
The jail is not built to accommodate that number of inmates, he said.
“Our new facility is expected to house 219 individuals and also help meet the needs as it relates to things like mental-health services,” he said. “A lot of people come into our facility with drug issues, even health concerns.”
He said he wanted to make it clear that the “County isn’t looking to get in the business of offering these services.”
“They’re already offered in our community, but we’re unable to offer a lot of those services now in our existing facility because the space is not there,” Kozlowski said. “I feel like we’ve had this vicious cycle where individuals are kind of cycling through our facility and we’re not addressing some of the needs that exist in them.”
It’s the hope that this new facility will meet some of those needs.
“And recognizing that, a good number of them, when they come out of jail, hopefully become productive members of society,” Kozlowski said. “That’s really the goal.”
He talked of the funding for the jail project, including a $15 million grant from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections received last year.
“We have been working for many years to secure funds to offset the expense of the new facility,” he said.
The County also has been saving funds and has a $15 million match.
“The majority of that was actually American Rescue Plan Act funds, also known as ARPA funds. The County during COVID received both CARES Act funds and ARPA funds. Rather than just kind of spending those funds, we decided to do our best to bank as much as much as we could to be able to save up for a project like this that our County needs,” Kozlowski said.
He said they are working through the schematic design of the project now, including working with Sheriff Bill Niemi on the inner workings of the facility.
“We hope to complete that in the next couple months,” Kozlowski said. “We will then go to the final design phase.”
Then they will be able to compare construction documents and go out to bid, probably over the summer, he said.
Kozlowski said they hopefully will break ground in the fall.
“The facility will take about two to three years to build. It’s not something that’s going to happen over night,” Kozlowski said.
He said the project will have an impact on operations in the Jefferson area.
“One of the biggest challenges we’re trying to work through right now is having sufficient parking,” Kozlowski said.
Where the facility is going to be located is on top of existing employee parking area, he said.
“It’s going to consume 81 parking spots,” he said.
He said they have been working hard to obtain other property to make up for that lost parking.
“We acquired a parcel just behind the old Title Agency and the credit union in Jefferson. That’s probably going to have about 100 parking spots that will serve as employee parking. We’re expanding the parking at our Public Defender’s Office, also known as the old KeyBank building,” Kozlowski said. “We’re also partnering with Huntington Bank in Jefferson. They’re going to be leasing some parking spots to us.”
He said they’re exploring a couple other properties in the area to potentially expand the parking lot footprint.
Kozlowski said people can follow the project at www.ashtabulacounty.us/publicsafetycenter
He also spoke about the planned consolidation of the Eastern and Western County Courts.
Kozlowski said they had partnered with the State of Ohio to conduct a study with the Ohio Supreme Court to determine they could operate more efficiently if they consolidated the courts.
Western County Court, now located in the City of Geneva, will be relocating to Jefferson this year.
The courts will consolidate effective Jan. 1, 2031, because they can’t end any incumbent judge’s term early.
The consolidated Ashtabula County Court will be located in Jefferson.
“As a result of that consolidation, we’ll be able to save taxpayer funds. It’s estimated that we’ll save a couple hundred thousands dollars a year on an annual basis, and it’ll also be a more efficient court overall as it relates to hearing cases,” Kozlowski said.
Kozlowski also gave an update on the Building Department.
“In our eyes, economic development, to a large degree, starts in that department,” Kozlowski said. “It’s always been a goal of ours to try to make things as efficient as possible, still while making sure that we comply with State law and the State building code but trying to make it simpler.”
He said a goal is to make it more customer friendly.
“We finally have incorporated new software into our department where we’re entering the 21st century,” Kozlowski said.
People are able to do credit-card payments.
“Rather than having to physically go to the office and make a payment for your plans, you’ll be able to do it online,” Kozlowski said.
He said they’ll be able to do some electronic plan submittals, and people will be able to track their plans as they move through the process.
Kozlowski said they’re also excited that Plumbing has been moved to the County Building Department, when before, people had to go to the Ashtabula County Building Department for an electric permit or another permit, and then over to the Health Department for plumbing.
“It’s a one-stop shop. You’ll be able to get your county permits right there in the one department, making it easier for you to conduct business,” Kozlowski said.
Next to speak was Whittington, who talked about the Convention Facilities Authority in regards to southern Ashtabula County.
“About a year ago, Commissioner Kozlowski met with some south county residents and the [CFA] and held a meeting in regards to economic development. We found there was great interest to move forward, that the community wanted to grow down there. So we have put together a stakeholder group,” Whittington said.
The stakeholder group held a meeting toward the end of last year and was presented with a hotel study that was done across the county.
The study determined that Andover is an area ripe for a hotel, she said.
“We’re going to be putting another meeting on the books to see where the interest flows with that,” Whittington said.
She encouraged people interested in being part of that to contact the commissioners’ office.
Whittington also talked about the Ashtabula County Manufacturing Institute’s summer STEM camps.
“STEM camp has just been growing by leaps and bounds,” Whittington said.
The camps are put on by the commissioners; OhioMeansJobs Ashtabula County; A-Tech; Ashtabula County Job & Family Services; Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County; Gazette Newspapers/Great Lakes Printing; Camp Beaumont; Congressman U.S. Dave Joyce’s Office; and Country Neighbor.
“We partner with local manufacturers in order for the kids to take field trips. And then they come back to A-Tech and they do a project,” Whittington said.
This past summer, they put on five camps total – fifth- and sixth-grade camps for three weeks, a seventh-grade camp and, new last year, an eighth-grade camp.
“We served 97 students last year, which was a record year for us,” Whittington said. “We’re excited that we’re working with our kids to show them what is here, what opportunities lie ahead for them.”
Whittington also talked about the Ashtabula County Land Bank, which has a new executive director, Jordan Torrance.
That day, they were submitting a $3.4 million grant to Welcome Home Ohio to construct 34 units located in Ashtabula Township.
“We also have a four-home build out of Conneaut. It’s the Hayward Redevelopment. That comes with grants we received from Welcome Home Ohio as well, but also NOPEC,” Whittington said.
A third project is a $750,000 grant from Welcome Home Ohio to build three units in Ashtabula City.
“We do have a shortage of housing. This is going to make a very small dent, but we’re excited that we’re starting the process,” Whittington said.
In his remarks, Ducro spoke about the Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic, which this year will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 11-12, at Lakeside Junior High School.
The RAM Clinic is a major nonprofit provider of pop-up clinics delivering free, quality dental, vision and medical care to underserved and uninsured individuals.
Ducro also talked about five water-and-sewer projects taking place in the county.
A brand-new water tower is going to be built in Harpersfield Township, just off Interstate 90 and Route 534, he said.
“That’s going to help stabilize water pressures for development that’s happening down there. We’ve got two new hotels, we have the SPIRE activity, wineries growing down there,” Ducro said.
He also spoke about Kingsville and two grants, one with the assistance of Congressman Dave Joyce’s Office for $2.2 million, and a State of Ohio grant for around $1 million, to put sewers at the interchange at State Route 193 and Interstate 90.
“It’s only the interchange in Ashtabula County, other than the Route 11 cloverleaf, that does not have sewers,” Ducro said.
People can see what sewers have done for the development in other areas.
“This will hopefully be a catalyst for growth and development there and bring services to some businesses there,” Ducro said.
He said there also is the South River waterline that is going to service some of the wineries along the South River corridor and into Lake County.
Another project is a bulk-water station being installed in Rome Township, by the South Central Ambulance District and Rome Fire Department.
“That will be available for public access to get bulk water,” Ducro said.
The last project he discussed was Coffee Creek in Austinburg Township.
There will be a large expansion down there to meet the needs of the industrial park and the development happening at Route 45 and Interstate 90, Ducro said.