Major building project nears completion

Dr. Roger Dean, executive director of Sanilac County Community Mental Health, stands in front of the new mental health building in Sandusky. Photo by Carol Seifferlein Mental Health staff are planning the move into their new facility like a military campaign.

"We plan to move over a two week period the first of April. We will move site by site with one to two days per site... IT (information technology) will probably be first," stated Dr. Roger Dean, executive director of the Sanilac County agency.

Community Mental Health is moving from three buildings, which house administrative staff and four programs, into the new 32,000 square foot facility adjacent to the agency's Ehardt Center and Kids' Connection on East Sanilac Avenue in Sandusky. Staff has already been visiting the new building a few at a time to see their offices and plan how to set up their work space.

Why will it take so long?

Dean said his goal is to keep everybody working during the move. In addition, they have some pretty technical equipment. For instance, the agency has very sophisticated filing cabinets, which will take several days to break down and put together again. The complicated system is necessary because of the privacy issues mental heath deals with as well as its spacesaving components for their paperwork.

Dean said Executive Secretary Deb Messing will be "command central" because she is organized and detail oriented.

The new building

"We went as energy efficient, as 'green' as possible with a limited budget. It will save money in the long run and it is very functional," Dean stated.

"The building incorporates the use of low mataince materials," said architect Orin Campbell of Sandusky. "The exterior roof is constructed of a standing seam metal product and the exterior walls are a combination of split face block and brick. Both systems are conducive in providing a long lasting, matainance free building envelope...The building and parking lot areas are illuminated with high efficient low energy fixtures."

Campbell added, "The building was designed with specific goals for improving indoor environmental quality... Thermal comfort is maintained throughout the building by means of the heating, ventilating and cooling system zoning. This zoning approach addresses the location within the building, the function of the space and its occupancy."

Dean noted the windows are tinted for privacy and energy conservation.

"The majority of the interior spaces makes use of natural daylighting," said Campbell. "This is achieved by providing each area with a large expanse of exterior glazing... The interior lighting systems throughout the building are controlled by occupancy sensors. This sensoring system automatically switches the lighting on or off as a space is occupied.

"The level of energy normally consumed is greatly reduced by implementing this system. The paint, flooring, and finish materials were all selected for their promotion of recycled content and/or as produced from sustainable sources" as well as for non toxicity.

Other special features of the new building include: video - conferencing accessibility to reduce travel time to meetings among the three county alliance partners St. Clair and Lapeer Community Mental Health, as well as Lansing and other select sites; a card reader door locking system; workroom for parts assembly for the several contracts that provide income for mental health consumers; and front and rear reception areas to address different consumer populations, including a large shelter for safe and easy motor vehicle loading and unloading of consumers who have developmental disabilities.

In addition, all janitorial services will be provided by consumers and food for the cafeteria will be provided and serviced daily by the consumers' food service program at Creative Enterprise, which is one of two current mental health buildings that are not being consolidated. Consumer art from the mental health art program will be judged and showcased in the lobby on a rotating basis.

"We want to show people a fair amount of artistic talent exists there," commented Dean.

The new building is part of a mental health campus, with the Kids ' Connection and Ehardt Center and and the Intermediate School District's special education offices.

"The building is orientated on the site to provide for safe pedestrian movement, and barrier free accessibility. The site drainage system is designed to capture the building and parking lot storm water. This retaining system is located underground, storing the water and eventually releasing it at a natural rate. With this system both the onsite and neighboring properties soil erosion are controlled," Campbell explained.

The community mental health board also met another important goal with the building project by using many local businesses.

"The economy is hurting and we are part of the community," said Dean. "We supported the community although it cost us...It was not the lowest bid, and there was a bit of rancor. That was a very heroic thing to do."

The board awarded the bid to contractor Thompson Builders of Sandusky primarily because they were going to use the largest number of subcontractors and suppliers from Sanilac County. The 16 local companies employed over 70 people on the project, not counting support staff. The board also used a Sandusky architect and Citizens First Bank of Sandusky.

Why did they construct a new building?

Mental health has been renting space in county-owned buildings for a long time, but is now essentially viewed as a squatter, Dean said.

As a result of a 2008 state ruling, "one government entity cannot make money off another government entity. Once a building is paid off, we can no longer pay rent," Dean explained.

Of the three county-owned buildings they rent, only the health department has not been paid off. The College for Independence building was paid off years ago, and the Warren- Wilson building was paid off in 2008. All three buildings are in Sandusky.

"The end of our leases with the county (2009) happened to roughly coincide with the states' unexpected reinterpretation of the A-87 clause. Thus, it became a disadvantage for both parties to reestablish the existing leases as they were then," said Dean. "Our CMH Board has always considered ourselves part of county government and we have tried to make decisions that were based on best overall interest of the county. The Board of Commissioners, in turn, has always been generous and helpful to our mission."

Their initial building exploration was actually a thorough analysis of the the health building with the idea of reformatting and expanding it to become a new consolidated site. However, there were space issues and remodeling problems that ruled it out.

"A side consequence/benefit of moving from several buildings to a consolidated site is that we will be paying less to buy the new building than we were when we were paying full rent for multiple buildings," Dean said.

In addition, the agency has eliminated some positions, and anticipates dropping more, because of the consolidation process.