St. Lucie County’s aging government and courthouse buildings need several million dollars’ worth of maintenance and repair work, but the county doesn’t have enough money to pay for it.
The county courthouse campus has $2.8 million in immediate maintenance needs, county records show. But the campus design cannot accommodate modern safety and security standards.
“It’s just hard to fix what wasn’t well designed in the first place,” County Administrator Howard Tipton told the county commissioners during a budget meeting earlier this month.
Estimates for developing a new courthouse campus range from $126 million to $142 million, county records show.
St. Lucie County also needs $3 million per year to maintain air conditioning, roofing, flooring and weather-proofing systems at county buildings, records show. But the county can only afford $1 million annually.
The $2 million per year in deferred maintenance causes the premature deterioration of buildings and higher costs in the long run, said County Administrator Howard Tipton.
“We are below a standard that is considered acceptable,” Tipton said.
It’s better to have a routine maintenance cycle to keep buildings in optimal shape, Tipton said.
In addition, the county wants to sell off dozens of properties that no longer justify their costs, or are not used. But many of the properties have title issues that make them hard to sell.
“It’s important to note too, a lot of the older buildings may have not been built great in the first place,” Tipton said.
The county hopes to eliminate 360,000 square feet of space and $1 million in maintenance costs in the next three years, Tipton said. The strategy includes allowing some employees to work from home, or in the field without showing up at an office.
In the long run, St. Lucie County must decide whether to build a new government administration campus that would be designed for tomorrow’s business environment, Tipton said.
County officials are looking at developing a new county administrative campus in 10 years, but didn’t provide the costs of such an undertaking in the 2019-2020 budget documents.
The county also plans to spend $200,000 next year to hire three new maintenance workers, Tipton said.
“It’s not where we need to be, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Tipton said.
