August 25, 1998
Seneca to be part of multi-county youth center
By Malinda Ruble
Staff Writer
The Seneca County Commissioners took a step Monday afternoon in the direction of a Northern Ohio Juvenile Community Correctional Facility.
The commissioners opted to sign the multi-county agreement which enters six counties into a deal with the state to create the rehabilitation facility. The $3 million project would be located in Erie County, with Ashland, Huron, Richland and Sandusky counties also participating in the project.
''We're at the point now where the multi-county agreement needs to be executed,'' said Greg Telecky of Poggemeyer Design Group. ''We wanted to get most of the recent documents in your hands. Ultimately what we'd like to do is set a target date for Erie County to receive the agreement back.''
The 30-bed facility would be adjacent to the Erie County Juvenile Detention Center, but would be built and operated by the state. The juvenile judges from the six counties would oversee the operation.
''We wanted to make sure with this agreement that if the facility is built, that we didn't want our taxpayers to pay for it and we wanted it in stone,'' said Tom Ferrell, an Erie County commissioner. ''This agreement assures us we're not going to be spending our taxpayers' dollars &emdash; it falls to the state.''
''It will be state funded and operated &emdash; if not, then we can't operate the facility. If the state chooses to operate it themselves, then that's fine, but we're not going to,'' Ferrell said.
Commissioner Janet Dell said the project will benefit Seneca County children.
''I'm glad this will be a go. It will be a very valuable asset to the county because the parents will be able to work with the children. I think we'll see some benefits to our young people very soon,'' Dell said.
The new facility would offer rehabilitative programs to those children in trouble.
''It's more treatment-oriented. They'll have programs for drug abuse,'' said Telecky.
''The kids selected would benefit from counseling. The idea is to get them back as productive members of the community,'' added Richard Sargeant, an attorney for Eastman and Smith in Toledo.
Telecky said he hopes to have all of the counties sign the agreement by Sept. 14.
The project is expected to be advertised for bids in spring 1999 and completed by spring 2000.