Toledo-Lucas County Health Department is one step closer to moving to a new building

TOLEDO, Ohio —

The Toledo-Lucas County Health Department is one step closer to moving to a new building.

Department officials said they’re hoping to close on the Diocese of Toledo’s downtown building on Friday.

The TLCHD building on North Erie Street has served the community for decades, but officials say it’s showing its age.

“The city’s maintenance crew’s been trying hard the last few years in keeping up,” public health commissioner Karim Baroudi said. 

But even with maintenance, a lot of the systems inside the building are obsolete. The department’s building also has leaky ceilings, issues with temperature control and parking, according to Baroudi.

“Parking is almost not available for our clients,” he said. “It’s nonexistent for our staff at all.”

He said staff has to park all over the city and walk to work.

The city has worked to keep the issues under control, but Baroudi said an assessment done for the city showed renovations wouldn’t be realistic.

“Found out that this was going to be too costly to renovate, to the north of $10 million,” Baroudi said.

Baroudi said the assessment also found that those renovations would only be good for about 10 years. He said the want for a new space became more of a need after the department had to close for a few days last summer because it was too hot inside.

“Because of the failing air conditioning system that we couldn’t find parts for in time, the temperature in the building was unbearable for families coming into our clinics,” Baroudi said.

Baroudi said when looking for alternatives, the diocese’s building became the best option.

“The renovation is very minimal,” he said. “The building there is very well kept.”

The total cost for the move and renovations will be $5 million. The city of Toledo will be paying $3.1 million for the project, and the other jurisdictions that the department serves will front the rest.

Baroudi said the new space will be better for staff and the more than 100 services the department currently provides.

“We can focus on the actual ‘serving the people,'” Baroudi said. “I think that’s what we’re all here for. We want to respect our population by having a safe, clean building where we can receive them.”

Baroudi said having more parking at the diocese building is one of the features the staff is most excited about.

The current health department building is set to be demolished after the move.