BROWN COUNTY, WI (WLUK) — Brown County’s executive says the county has too much wasted space in some of its buildings in downtown Green Bay.
Security is another concern as county officials say the number of volatile encounters with the public are growing.
Large offices sit empty in the Northern Building, Brown County’s main hub for government operations. The same is being said about the nearby Sophie Beaumont building, which houses the county’s health and human services.
“We also know that the way we’ve done business in this building is changing where we can legitimately eliminate between these two buildings the equivalency of one building or 50,000 square feet,” said Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach. “If we can generate between $500,000 to $700,000 in operational savings, one would say that is probably a pretty good thing to look at.”
Streckenbach says the county is doing just that with a study of its current facilities. The county says the cost of the study is $99,500 and the hope is to have findings in time for the next budget.
FOX 11 asked Streckenbach if all the open space is a product of people working from home since the pandemic.
“Nope, it’s just design or it’s because we no longer need so much space for filing. The Register of Deeds is a perfect example of just a department evolving with technology.”
Streckenbach believes it would be a challenge to simply move everything from one building into the other because of each building’s layout. However, he says the study will determine what is feasible.
“All these buildings are tired,” said Pat Buckley, the chair of the Brown County Board of Supervisors. “Before we go spend millions of dollars fixing them up, we need to see if it’s worthwhile.”
Buckley says knowing future needs is especially important before potentially adding security screening to either building, which he isn’t sure is even possible.
“We can make something work. However, is it going to be ideal?”
One possibility is building something new at the current site of the downtown jail, which is expected to be demolished. A $3.9 million addition to the courthouse next door to accommodate security screening is expected to be done next year.
Streckenbach says the equipment is about $1.5 million and it would be ideal to not buy it for multiple buildings.
“Arguably that could be a part of it, yes, to leverage that investment that we’re doing right now and fold that into the larger development,” said Streckenbach.
Streckenbach warns the results of the facilities study need to come first.
“In the end, it costs money to be able to do this,” said Streckenbach. “We just have to be able to justify it and that’s what we’re going through.”
Talks of consolidation are also happening elsewhere in county operations – even to a more serious degree. A consultant is working on what it would take to move the aging and disability resource center and other county services into the central library.
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