County looks at internal borrowing to pay down ACDES office construction

JEFFERSON – The Ashtabula County commissioners were briefed on a plan to use internal funds to pay down the construction costs of a new office building for the Environmental Services Department during a Tuesday, May 5, work session.
Janet Discher, county administrator, said she had talked with the treasurer about using county funds, or internal borrowing, to pay down the estimated cost of $1.8 million for a new office building for the Ashtabula County Department of Environmental Services, which is presently out for bids.
The current office building on West Walnut Street must be demolished to make room for a new parking lot as part of the jail expansion and renovation project.
Discher said the county’s sewer fund had been mistakenly marked as a capital fund, rather than an operating fund, meaning interest generated by the fund – about $286,000 a year – had stayed with it, rather than being moved to the county’s general fund.
Discher told the board that she is planning to use those funds, as well as $339,000 generated annually by the county’s water fund, to pay down the construction costs over a three-to-five-year period.
This would mean a loss of the $339,000 each year to general funds over that period, but also that repayment can be made at a much lower interest rate than from a commercial loan, according to Discher. It would also mean an increase in interest income to the general fund from $339,000 to $625,000 a year once the project costs are paid in full.
Commissioner Kathryn Whittington expressed her concerns that falling interest rates could mean reduced interest income into the sewer and water funds. Discher said she may have to pay down the debt over a longer period if that is the case, but that she is trying to have it done as quickly as possible without using general funds.
Discher said she will “fine-tune” her proposal after talking with the treasurer after construction bids are received and opened.
In other business, Chief Deputy Terry Moisio told the commissioners the sheriff’s office is applying for an $84,000 grant with no local match from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Jail Safety and Security Program for equipment at the county jail, as well as a grant from the Ohio Impaired Driving Enforcement Program Selective Traffic Enforcement Program to help cover overtime during selected periods of traffic enforcement targeting impaired driving.
Whittington asked the board if the county can contribute $5,000 from its opioid settlement funds to help Western County Court make GPS tracking available to its probation department for indigent defendants.
Board President Casey Kozlowski said he would be in favor, so long as Judge Casey O’Brien can assure the board the equipment can still be used when the probation departments are merged next year.
Commissioner J.P. Ducro IV said he’d paid a visit to the former Ashtabula Municipal Building, now owned by the county, after a video on social media showed low-hanging tree limbs had made the sidewalks hard to travel.
He said he’d cut a few of them back himself, but was curious if the board could offer to make a $500 donation to the Lakeside Athletic Boosters in exchange for some of the football players volunteering to help cut back limbs, pull weeds and clear the parking lot, while an adult could use an edger to clean up the property and make the place presentable.
Kozlowski said the board should go out for bids but didn’t see a problem otherwise.
Two openings on the Ashtabula County District Library Board of Trustees can be filled in by a resident of the district, or of the county, according to Crystal Sturgill, assistant board clerk, after referencing the Ohio Revised Code.
Kozlowski said the board should ask for applications from anyone who is interested.