News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Northern Lights Arena Manager Jeremy Winterstein shows off the interior of a dehumidifier where there are parts that need to be replaced. The rink is one of several Alpena County-owned facilities in need of improvements.

ALPENA — Alpena County has some big decisions on the horizon for how to address maintenance and repairs to some of its aging buildings.

At the top of the list is determining what to do with the former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services building. The county has leased it to the state for 20 years and the building is now unused.

The county is considering making improvements to the office building and moving operations from the courthouse there or making needed repairs and additions to the old courthouse and keeping operations there.

There is a significant cost no matter what option is selected.

The DHHS office has moved on to a new Alpena location, leaving the large office building vacant. The county is responsible for paying to maintain it and figuring out how best to utilize it moving forward.

An upcoming facilities study could help the Alpena County commissioners decide what the best use for the former state office is and how much it would cost to modify it for other uses.

At Wednesday’s Facilities, Capital, and Strategic Planning Committee meeting the commissioners instructed County Administrator Mary Catherine Hannah to bring a list of proposed projects for its facilities to its next meeting so they can sift through proposals, insert them into the capital improvement plan, and see which ones are included in the 2023 budget.

Hannah said she will, but she also cautioned the committee that committing large amounts of money into facilities now, before the facility study is complete, could be counterproductive and more costly.

“All of our buildings have a lot of infrastructure projects that need to be done and they are at an age where they need a lot of investment,” Hannah said. “However, you don’t want to invest in a building that you may have to massively change and maybe have to redo it again. Why not wait until we have a solid plan that we have community input into, and spend money wisely and not throw good money after bad. We don’t want to do a project that we may have to end up redoing a couple years later.”

The lease with the state for the DHHS office expires on June 30, but operations have already been moved to its new home on Miller Street.

In order to cut costs for the empty building, the commissioners are considering closing it, shutting off the utilities, and letting it sit empty until a new use is found.

Commissioner Don Gilmet said when you “mothball” a building, the structure can deteriorate quickly. He said whatever the county intends to do with the courthouse and/or the DHHS office, it should be done sooner rather than later.

Gilmet said he believes the public should have a say in which direction is the right one.

“A mothballed building where there is no heat, they become subject to the weather and things begin to expand and contract,” Gilmet said. “Hopefully the building study will give us some good ideas and set us off on the right path, but we will also need public input. For me personally, I can’t see for the life of me seeing the residents wanting us to abandon the original courthouse and use this one-story building.”

Gilmet said the courthouse needs extensive work and that comes with a significant cost. He said the historic building isn’t barrier free and is difficult for people with disabilities to navigate. There is no elevator in the courthouse, which the county wants to address.

Gilmet said because of the courthouse’s historical designation, an elevator can’t be installed in the original building, but previously drafted design plans for an addition to the courthouse would be sufficient for an elevator.

“It would look like a little annex put onto the courthouse,” he said. “We would still have the original courthouse, but also an addition that kind of matched where the elevator could go.”