From left, Columbiana deputy city administrator Bryce Miner, councilman Robert Quetot, service director Jesse Wilson and council president “Skip” Liston listen to city manager Lance Willard speak before they begin Friday’s tour of the soon-to-be-new-to-them city building, as they all stand in the former service center of the dealership. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)

COLUMBIANA — Now that #1 Cochran vacated their building at 21 E. Railroad St. that is now owned by the city of Columbiana, the planning can begin.

City manager Lance Willard and deputy city administrator Bryce Miner led the committee assigned to inspect the 11,688-square-foot main dealership building to house their city administration, police and utility billing operations.

In attendance Friday afternoon for the tour of the structure were council members Skip Liston, Robert Quetot and Ted Souder, as was newly named city service director Jesse Wilson, who has been assigned to special projects like this one.

Only standing empty under a month, the group overall was pleased with the building condition as well as the quality of furnishings left behind by Cochran.

Willard explained that the engineers overseeing the conversion, Howells and Baird, already had possession of the blueprints for the building, which had been updated a few decades ago.

Discussion centered around a suggestion that it may good for the city to bring in a laser to get a 3D rendering of the building to get an expanded picture.

Wilson said that he expects most of the issues potentially to be found in the electrical system.

The building has a large service area, which potentially could be converted into a sally port to hold police vehicles. Cochran did leave behind 30 carjacks with the property, which also includes two electric charging stations for vehicles.

The car wash equipment had been leased, so Willard said the company will come and collect it; however, the plan is for the city to also lease updated equipment for installation in the car wash.

As administrators and council members walked throughout the building on their tour, Souder provided a little background on the property’s history.

This had been the site of a much smaller dealership during the early 1970s, slowly increasing in size as the owner purchased up properties in the neighborhood.

While the committee members and Wilson decided to go up to a second-floor attic space, they shared their exploration tales with Willard and Miner, who had stayed downstairs and revealed some of the more interesting promotional finds, like an inflatable cow and apparel swag that had been discovered.

Most of the space downstairs had been sectioned off into smaller offices.

Willard explained most of those with non-loadbearing walls will probably be removed as they endeavor for larger rooms as needed, like a council chamber; caucus room; police squad room; and a utility billing area with both walk-up and drive-through capabilities.

With the current configurations, Miner estimated there were approximately 30 separate office spaces throughout the facility.

The #1 Cochran vacated the building in October and turned over the keys recently.

There was no question that the building’s former use was a dealership as tourists found various keys with fobs for past vehicles gracing the desks in vacated offices.

Dealership operations have been moved to Boardman, where a brand new showroom and service center is being built next to their Buick GMC location.

Willard informed attendees of the tour that he was prepared to take the collected information and suggestions back to Howells and Baird, which didn’t have a rep present Friday, and ask for feedback to proceed by week’s end.

Currently, the city administrative operations are located at 28 W. Friend St., which they outgrew decades ago.

Along with the main dealership building, Columbiana gained the Heritage House building across the street as well as a red building across the tracks that used to house the dealership’s paint shop as part of the acquisition.

sujhelyi@mojonews.com