12/30/06 County bears flooding, proposes health center

(as published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

This past year was a challenging one for the county, with a crisis in the Department of Social Services early in the year, flooding issues throughout the summer and decisions on a number of large-scale building projects brought to the forefront at year’s end. Perhaps the biggest story of the year from the Legislature came just last week, as it opted to purchase, for a total of $894,000, nine separate parcels of land on south Main Street to be used for the construction of a public health facility.
The proposed 15,300-square-foot facility would house both the departments of Mental Health and Public Health and carries an estimated price tag of $5.5 million, about $3 million of which would come from tobacco settlement money the county had been waiting to use on just such a project.
“I think one of the most important things is that we’re using the tobacco money for something that will benefit the public’s health — it’s certainly an appropriate use,” said Legislature Chairman Marilyn Brown (D-8th Ward). “And the other thing is, that facility will go a long way in improving the south Main Street area.”
The county also heard a report from an advisory committee for the Sheriff’s Department regarding the need for a new county jail. The current jail is overcrowded and poorly laid out, the committee told legislators in July. In addition, it costs the county roughly $750,000 per year to board inmates out to other counties. “This is something that needs to be addressed as soon as possible,” Jim Cunningham, a retired county probation director who served on the advisory committee, said at the time.
The committee recommended a new jail be built outside the city, to give room for expansion, and suggested the county consider at least a 100-bed facility, up from the current capacity of about 60 beds.
The county is still waiting on a final report regarding the space the county would need in a new jail from engineers Carter, Globe and Lee, said County Administrator Scott Schrader, and expects to receive that report in the next few weeks.
Schrader said he was still in the process of looking at potential properties for a new jail, along with properties for a potential relocation of the Department of Motor Vehicles, currently located in the basement of the Cortland County Courthouse.
Meanwhile, planning for renovating the county courthouse also began this year. The Legislature recently accepted bids for the first phase of work, which should begin in January, and which will cost about $660,000.
The first phase involves relocating the main entry and security checkpoint from the back basement entrance to the historic front entrance, installing a wheelchair-accessible ramp at the front entrance and relocating the law library.