Art Van Furniture 4050 E Grand River Rd Howell Michigan

Livingston County Veterans' Services Director Mary Durst said her department is on a time crunch to sign a charter on a new office, which is sorely needed.

Durst said while lease negotiations with the landlord seemed to be falling through every bit of last week, she has since received word from the real estate agent that the lines of communication are back open.

County officials are looking to more than than double the size of the department'due south office, moving information technology out of an approximately 1,200-square foot infinite at 2300 E. One thousand River Ave. #109 in the county's East Circuitous Building in Genoa Township, which Durst says has many limitations.

The part would be relocated to a more 3,000-foursquare foot tenant infinite at 4050 Due east. Grand River Ave. in Genoa Township near Howell, which was previously an Art Van PureSleep Outlet Center that closed when Fine art Van Furniture went out of business earlier this year.

Durst said the larger building volition let for more programs for veterans and more than privacy and space for them to access resource.

"It volition accept an extra office where MichiganWorks! and veterans can sit. It would accept a figurer for tele-mental health. We could too do more programs with the (multipurpose) room, similar someone coming in and helping with taxes or seminars," she said, besides saying she has discussed bringing programs offered at the Ann Arbor VA to the county.

The department currently does not have its own conference or multipurpose room. The new location would feature one.

Durst said the new space would allow the department to concur its events at its own building instead of off-site and also host other local veterans organizations.

"Correct at present, I think information technology's disjointed," she said.

She as well said the current office in the county's Eastward Complex Edifice, which also houses other county services, including food stamps and other assistance programs "has a regime handout vibe."

She said this "vibe" could deter some veterans from taking advantage of veterans services.

"Instead of, I get because I'one thousand downwardly on my luck, I desire it to feel elite, similar I'yard here because I've earned this," she said.

Griffith said the department'due south current location would be used by other canton departments, possibly the health department.

"Information technology would not stay vacant," she said.

Fourth dimension crunch

Charter negotiation delays accept acquired a time crunch because the department received a $108,015 grant for the move from the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, and the borderline to utilize the grant is Sept. xxx.

"Annihilation we accuse towards the grant has to be services rendered and the checks cutting by Sept. thirty, and nosotros obviously can't buy annihilation until we take the charter signed," Durst said.

She said the grant would be used to renovate the new office, install technology and purchase signage.

Despite delays, county commissioners voted unanimously Monday to approve an agreement to lease the location.

Rent would commencement at $3,650 a month.

Durst said some of the grant might be used for hire and it would exist covered by a millage for veterans services voters in the canton passed in 2016.

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"There's a fourth dimension frame nosotros're working within, because in that location is a grant that will cover the space and it's fourth dimension sensitive. Nosotros realize that and that's what we are trying to conform it," Carol Griffith, chair of the county's Lath of County Commissioners, said of the board's unanimous decision to corroborate a resolution to charter the space.

Griffith said the final agreement is now in the hands of attorneys for the county and the edifice management visitor. She said information technology is her agreement that the attorneys are going back and forth on the exact language and format of the lease.

"I think in that location are some pocket-size bug that need to be addressed by the attorneys," she said.

County officials have been discussing the need for a larger part for veterans services for years.

A few years ago, there was discussion nearly edifice a new office on vacant land near the department'due south electric current location. One plan included amalgam a new transitional housing complex for homeless or displaced veterans and family unit members where they could temporarily alive while they work out long-term housing solutions.

Durst said information technology was adamant the county's population of homeless or displaced veterans was not keen enough to justify the large edifice.

"I reached out to a local practiced at the Ann Arbor VA who deals with health treat homeless vets. We don't have the population for that," she said.

She said the good told her the county instead needs more than efficiency housing.

At that place was also discussion well-nigh only constructing a new office edifice.

Griffith said the cost and time needed to build a new building were factors in the county non pursuing that option.

"Right at present with the cost of building escalating and too the fourth dimension it takes to build anything new, (a rental space) is probably a very expert venue, and they can get new programs upwards and running," she said.

Contact Livingston Daily reporter Jennifer Timar at 517-548-7148 or at jtimar@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter @jennifer_timar.

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Source: https://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/local/community/livingston-county/2020/09/16/under-time-crunch-county-approves-new-location-veterans-services/5816598002/

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