By Mike Pettinella
For Video News Service
Time and space.
Genesee County Manager Matt Landers didn’t hold back when talking about the quandary the municipality is in when it comes to finding enough room for his employees to work most efficiently and effectively.
In other words, Landers needs a bit more time to figure out how best use – or not use – the county’s building space.
(File photo-Genesee County dispatch)
Video News Service on Wednesday evening contacted Landers to find out why E911 dispatchers — who normally work out of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office on Park Road — were performing their duties at the former backup dispatch center in the front part of the old county jail on West Main Street in the City of Batavia.
Landers said that at least twice a year the emergency dispatch team “has to go through and test the backup 911 center to make sure that it’s ready to roll for them.”
He then referred to an email from Frank Riccobono, the county’s director of Emergency Communication, indicating that dispatchers will be working from the backup center due to maintenance work (at the Park Road building) that requires the temporary shutdown of the building’s boiler.
Landers said dispatchers will be at the former dispatch center only until 7 o’clock on Thursday morning.
(File photo of new Jail on West Main Street Road)
When asked why the backup E911 center at the new county jail on West Main Street Road in the Town of Batavia isn’t up and running yet, Landers said that it wasn’t ready due to the communication towers not being operational.
“Yeah, the jail was operational (last July) but the backup 911 center wasn’t complete when the jail opened,” he said. “Once the towers are fully up – maybe in a couple months, then it will be in service. Then, they won’t have to use this one (at the old jail) anymore.”
(File photo of old jail)
WHAT TO DO WITH OLD JAIL BUILDING?
Landers then provided information about the status of the old jail building, which features an historic structure on West Main Street – superbly renovated to the tune of $3 million-plus last year – and a circa 1980 facility (that housed the cell blocks) behind it.
He said offices in front currently are being used by the county’s public defenders.
“We have the public defenders’ overflow who are working there while the (former) Engine House (Restaurant building) is being renovated,” he said, adding that some employees of the district attorney’s office will be moving there as well.
Landers estimated that move to take place in July.
As far as the former cell block area is concerned, Landers said facilities’ department employees are working out of that area at this time.
The future of the former county jail is up in the air, he said.
“We’re going to be awarding an RFP (request for proposal). It’s going to go to committee at the next Public Service meeting with the Public Works’ department,” he said. “There’s a capital planning/building study analysis RFP that’s being awarded – looking at all of our capital buildings to see where we can potentially merge and/or shed some of our space.”
When asked if the options were either selling it or repurposing it, Landers said yes.
“We can’t demo it,” he said. “We could demo the back end – the addition that was put on – but the rest of it is historical so there’s no taking that down.”
(File photo of Brisbane mansion/currently City of Batavia Police Department)
Landers said he is open to ideas, noting that the county is in position to market it in light of the fact that the city is seeking to unload the Brisbane Mansion next door.
“We’re trying to be smart with the buildings that we have and if we could find a possibility of shrinking our footprint, we would,” he said.
Landers said he wishes the Genesee County Court Facility at West Main Street and Ellicott Street was bigger.
“The court facility should have been three or four stories tall,” he offered. “Basically, I’m dealing with the fact that the space we have is not enough for the staffing that we have. And the staffing that we have is reflection of the either the crime that’s out there or the mandate coming from New York State of what our staffing needs to be.”
He said the county received a grant for $1 million towards an elevator at the former Engine House, which is a stone’s throw from the court facility.