Ashtabula Health Department settling into new office

Jan. 18—ASHTABULA — Staff of the Ashtabula Health Department is getting settled in their new offices.

Ashtabula City Health Commissioner Christine Hill said the building worked out well.

"We've just made a few upgrades, I think we're going to do a few upgrades in phases," she said.

The new office has a nurse's clinic room and offices for health department staff, as well as storage space.

Previously, the health department was located in the basement of the Ashtabula Municipal Building.

Hill said the new office also makes it easier for visitors to find the department.

"We are the only department in this building, street level, close free parking," she said.

In addition to having office space for health department staff, the building also has a meeting space large enough for the Board of Health to meet.

The move from the Municipal Building to the new offices took place in the week between Christmas and New Year's.

"It's traditionally a little bit slow week for us, and the weather looked like it was going to, for our area, cooperate," Hill said.

The office at the Municipal Building had about the same amount of square footage, but had a significant amount of storage space, she said.

There is never a good time to move, she said. The Ashtabula Health Department had been in those offices for about 15 years.

At a press conference last year, the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners announced they would purchase the Ashtabula Municipal Building, located at 4717 Main Avenue, for the use of the Ashtabula County Juvenile Court.

At the same time, Ashtabula City Manager Jim Timonere announced the city would relocate its offices to the north end of Main Avenue, taking over Dr. Norman Gloekler's office upon his retirement for the health department, and moving the city's offices into two buildings across the street.

At a council meeting on Tuesday night, Second Ward council member Terence Guerriero said the new building looks great.

"They gave me a tour because I'm there all the time, and I thought it was great," he said.

Timonere said the city was initially planning to put the Health Department in the Stouffer-Herzog building basement, which would have required installing an elevator.

"The elevator cost alone exceeded what we had to pay to buy that building," he said. "So, being that it was a doctor's office, we had to do very few modifications over there."

Timonere noted the building has a Lake Avenue address.