Columbiana County Archives Storage building nears completion
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LISBON -- The Columbiana County Archives Storage Facility is getting closer to finishing, with substantial completion expected in the next week or two and the building expected to open sometime in September.
"There is progress being made on the archives building," county Commissioner Tim Ginter said Wednesday.
Originally, the plan was to have the building ready to go sometime in July, but that didn't happen.
"There was a delay due to an issue with the required water flow for the fire suppression system. That has been resolved," Ginter said.
According to Ginter, the next step is the final inspection which is being scheduled with the state, then there's the punch list walk through. The shelving installation is taking place now.
There's also the moving of the records from current locations to the new building.
Ginter said there's still a lot to get done.
A date for opening has not been determined, but he said he's expecting to have a grand opening in another month, possibly in late September.
The county-owned lot bordered by East Chestnut Street to the north, North Nelson Avenue to the west and North Jefferson Street to the east in Lisbon previously housed the county Department of Job and Family Services building, but was vacant for several years after that building was razed.
Now the site will become home to the county's records -- a 24,600-square-foot, climate-controlled, secure block and brick building with a dry chemical fire suppression system, a freight elevator and office space.
During a previous walk-through of the building back in April, Ginter explained that the county's records from the various offices are housed in several different locations, including underneath the county jail on County Home Road, Lisbon, the basement of the Board of Elections at the Government Services Building on Dickey Drive, Lisbon, the downtown county courthouse in Lisbon, the county Municipal Court building on Saltwell Road, Lisbon and the Iron Mountain storage facility in Pennsylvania. The Columbiana County Archives and Research Center also houses records. Some limited records are housed by the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus.
According to Ginter, the county will be able to archive most of the records in one location once the new building opens.
The new building will be closer to the courthouse with sufficient room for further expansion and future records. The records will be more secure and better organized. During a tour of the structure, he said each room will have a separate fire suppression system, that way if something happens, any damage will be kept to a single room.
The front entrance will face East Chestnut Street and have a handful of parking spaces. The back will be gated with parking spaces and the entrance to a garage area that can hold six vehicles on the ground floor.
Besides the Clerk of Courts for records from Common Pleas Court and Municipal Court, offices with storage space on the main floor will include the commissioners, recorder, treasurer, prosecutor, auditor and the nonprofit Columbiana County Archives and Research Center which will move from its small office on South Market Street to the new building.
The main floor will include a digital archives space, copy room, janitor's closet, restrooms and kitchen/break room. Some offices will share a large room, but with the room split by a metal fence, with a separate entrance for each office.
The lower level will include spaces for the sheriff's office, health district and a large closed-off secured space for the county Drug Task Force office.
Entry to all spaces will require separate key cards specific for each office.
Previous plans called for installation of a commercial shredder, but Ginter said they realized it would be less expensive to use an outside company for shredding.
Underneath the ground behind the building, an underground storm water chambers system was installed, comprised of several large pipes surrounded by semi-permeable membranes. All the drains will flow from the building and surrounding property into the underground system. The pipes underground will collect the water and slowly release it into the storm sewer.
C. Tucker Cope Design-Build, Inc. of Columbiana is the overall project contractor, with some work being done by subcontractors. The estimated $7.2 million project originally had a price tag of $6.9 million but then there was a large change order required due to an issue with the soil conditions discovered last year that required construction of extra reinforcements underground to support the foundation.
Ginter previously explained that C. Tucker Cope Design-Build contracted with Keller Company, a geotechnical specialist contractor. He said the company specializes in constructing caissons, which provide sublevel reinforcements through rebar cages filled with concrete.
A normal commercial building is built to handle 200 pounds per square foot, but Ginter said in this case, the structure would be built to handle 300 pounds per square foot.
The commissioners committed $4 million from American Rescue Plan Act funds towards the cost of the project and received $2.9 million from the state capital budget toward the cost, with the remaining costs to be covered by the county's capital improvements fund.