New location, same mission
Valparaiso child support office to open Monday
The smell of fresh paint was in the air and the whirring of power tools almost drowned out conversation.
Information technology personnel got computers up and running while employees unpacked cardboard boxes, getting ready to settle in to new, if temporary, digs.
This was anything but just another office moving into a new space. The staff of Porter County Child Support Services, forced out of its previous space at 15 N. Franklin St. in downtown Valparaiso because the lease was deemed invalid, had just weeks to move into a place that could meet security and other federal requirements.
The office closed Wednesday for the rest of the week so the move could take place. Despite the finishing touches going on Friday, the office will open Monday at 157 N. Franklin St., in the former Casa del Mar restaurant on the ground floor of the former county jail.
“We’re calling it our ‘temporary adventure,’ ” said attorney Laura Stafford, who directs the office, adding that any work had to follow Internal Revenue Service regulations, since child support services is a federal grant program.
Commissioners, with the approval of the county council, purchased the former jail for $3.6 million in the spring as part of a capital upgrade plan for county facilities.
Ultimately, 911 Commu- nications and other offices will move to the former jail as well. While renovation of the structure isn’t expected to be complete for another year or so, controversy over the longstanding lease at 15 N. Franklin St. and an outside legal opinion that the lease wasn’t valid forced a yearend deadline on child support services to move out of that office.
The former restaurant, with renovations to the Franklin Street entrance, dividers built in between work spaces, and even a private area for employees and clients to nurse, will fill the need for now. Stafford and her employees will move again once their permanent space, also on the ground floor, on the south side of the building, is ready.
“Commissioners are appreciative of the cooperation we’ve received from that office because they’ve been great, especially when they have to move twice,” said Commissioner Laura Blaney, D-South.
Commissioners voted in mid-November on contracts for the work for the renovation, including an hourly contract with the architectural firm ShiveHattery, and time and material contracts with Gariup Construction and Circle R Electric.
Matt Stechly, the county’s facilities director, said his office met with the architect, commissioners and the staff of child support services, and had plans drawn up that met Stafford’s parameters for security because of the confidential nature of the office’s work.
A state inspector made sure the plans complied with federal regulations, Stechly said, and came back recently for an on- site inspection. “It’s not just general offices,” he said.
Stone columns, latticework on the ceiling and the former restaurant’s wood floors remain in place.
“It’s pretty impressive what we did in 3 1⁄
2 weeks,” he said. “You would never know it was a Mexican restaurant.”
In a partnership with the city of Valparaiso for the liquor license, commissioners had planned on finding another restaurant to occupy the space. The fate of that plan is unclear now that it’s been turned into temporary offices, though the large kitchen equipment remains.
“We’ll see when the rest (of the building) is finished. We would like to get rental income but if we can get rental income from some place other than a restaurant, that’s OK too,” Blaney said.
Part of the former kitchen has been turned into a break room, and the child support services office also now includes a room for nursing mothers, to accommodate employees and clients.
“I’m actually very happy about that,” Stafford said.
Other options for moving the office on county property included a spot on the lower level of the county administration building, which Stafford said wouldn’t comply with federal regulations, and the Juvenile Detention Center on Indiana 2, which would have required rearranging the juvenile probation office.
“This was the ideal location of the choices,” she said, adding the downside will be construction noise from elsewhere in the building, which could be disruptive.
The renovation and move, Stafford said, went much better than she thought it would, and her staff has always been “very adaptable” at doing what they have to.
While an employee from the county’s IT department set up her computer, receptionist Gloria Lodics said the new space would be an adjustment, but the hardest part was not knowing where the office was going to go.
“It was a good transition, and we’re all starting to unload boxes to be ready for Monday morning,” she said. “It’s just a lot of getting everything set up.”
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.