Statement accelerates talk of shared government services building
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
After years of discussions on the future of the building, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave made it clear at the Jan. 19 Committee of the Whole meeting that the Western Racine County Service Center has a limited lifespan in the City of Burlington.
Delagrave said it is his intention that the building, at 209 N. Main Street, will be torn down by the end of 2017. He made the announcement at the end of a short presentation on the county budget.
Currently, there are just a handful of services still offered there, according to Mayor Bob Miller. However, the Burlington Senior Citizen Center is located in the back third of the building as well.
Miller said after the meeting that the announcement didn’t come as a surprise.
“It’s been discussions we’ve been having for two years,” Miller said.
However, with the city looking at a number of capital projects – two of which include a new City Hall and public library expansion – in the near future, the opportunity to decide what to do with the land left open by the building’s demolition is drawing attention.
There will be a public meeting Monday, Jan. 25, in the Burlington High School library at 6:30 p.m. to discuss options going into the process. Burlington Area School District is now potentially part of the discussion as well, as part of the facilities study that was recently completely addressed the age of the current administration building.
Previous county executives have addressed the possibility of a joint city-county services center, but Miller said Tuesday that what exactly will end up in any new building would be “part of the discussions.”
He did say, though, that any new building would have the original concept of a joint services center, as well possibly the library and school district offices.
In 2015, then-Racine County Executive James Ladwig earmarked $1.1 in the proposed budget for a new county service center to be built in conjunction with the city.
It was 2010 when Miller and former County Executive Bill McReynolds first discussed the possibility of a shared government service facility. Since then Miller and Ladwig – McReynolds’ successor – have pursued additional partnerships that are mutually beneficial to the city and county.
In 2012 the city began offering several county services – including marriage licenses, birth, death and real estate certificates, and property tax payments – that were formerly offered at the Western Racine County Service Center.
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