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The Seneca County (Ohio) Courthouse - The Truth In Pictures

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The Seneca County Courthouse, Tiffin, Ohio - ENDANGERED FOR NO REASON; BUT NOW, HOPE LIVES!!

25 August 2009 - For many years now, our county commissioners have been devising a scheme in which they could tear down our historic 1884 Seneca County Courthouse, in order to replace it with a "generic" looking building, which would be too small to make a dent in the space they need to conduct county business, as laid out in their recent Space Needs Study. Many entities, including the Tiffin Historic Trust, has been spending those same years trying to demonstrate to our county commissioners that the current building can be saved, restore, & renovated, giving the county all the room it will need, for a price much lower than what they seemed to believe was possible. Any talk of them trying to restore the building was met with the usual arguments, that such a project would be "fiscally irresponsible".

About one year ago, enter Franklin Conoway & his team of experts, who did a more extensive study of the current courthouse than had ever been done to date. After much hard work, getting exact estimates for the various projects that needed to be done to accomplish this goal (rather than the ballpark estimates that previous groups have depended on & presented to the county as being "written in stone", they were able to prove without a shadow of a doubt that the entire renovation/restoration of the Seneca County Courthouse could be accomplished for about $7,995,000. A significant amount of the funding for this project could come from outside sources, many of whom have already said they would be "on board" with the project, were it to move forward. This, in addition to low interest loans (USDA, etc), & grants from various organizations, could bring the cost down to virtually nothing to the Seneca County taxpayer.

THE DREAM IS ALIVE!!!!!

Many thanks go to many people who had a hand or two into making this possible: Franklin Conoway & his brilliant team, The Seneca County Courthouse and Downtown Development Group, the Tiffin Historic Trust, and the many, many, many citizens of Tiffin & Seneca County, Ohio, who have given their imput via letters to the newspaper, donating funds in support of the cause, & some of the local media, such as the Toledo TV stations & the Toledo Blade, for giving the facts in full, in order to keep our county & community informed as to how this journey has progressed.

Today, the Seneca County Commissioners have passed, & signed, a resolution to begin work on the renovation/restoration of our 1884 Seneca County Courthouse. They have finally been shown, to their satisfaction, that restoration is INDEED the most "fiscally responsible" thing to do. After perhaps 6 or 7 years of debate, discussion, & out & out battle, the truth of this situation has finally seen the light of day, it's finally been accepted, & it will finally come to pass!!

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And Now.....

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SENECA COUNTY COURTHOUSE, in pictures. None of these photos have been edited, altered, or changed in any way, other than resizing to save space, brightening of some of the darker ones, and the use of a sharp mask to bring the details (including any possible glaring problems) into sharper focus. As predicted, the experts who have inspected this building in glaring detail have stated that this building is safe, it is strong, & can be saved for less money than tearing it down & building a small building that would never have given the county government the space it says it needs to begin with. Almost every single "problem" with this building do not take away from it's overall excellent condition; most of the things that need to be done are purely cosmetic, or have to do w/ rethinking how the space in the building is being used, & how it could be used to greater efficiency.

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The Seneca County Courthouse

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Let me know what you think of these pictures, and whether they show you a building that's dangerous, falling down and beyond hope, or a building that Seneca County can be proud of, that Seneca County WILL be proud of, once it is completed.

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  • Reply
    LinTK Dec 29, 2011 @ 11:55 pm | delete
    Diana & Jeff: Thank you so much for looking this up. It's been awhile since it's been updated, but it appears you know the news as it stands currently - the Seneca County commissioners (or at least 2 of them) are getting their way, & destroying our historic Courthouse. Ben Nutter & Jeff Wagner have dumped so many lies on the citizens of this county, it's not even funny.

    But, now comes the work of getting the truth out there, so that these 2 idiots are voted out of office forever.....at the very *least*!
  • Reply
    Diana & Jeff Nienberg Dec 29, 2011 @ 6:34 pm | delete
    I am so sad to hear the courthouse is going to be destroyed . I can not understand those commissioners. Every county seat in Ohio has a beautiful historic courthouse. Iit saddens me that Seneca County will lose this beautiful piece of history. How does Europe manage to keep buildings that are hundreds of years old?? Joseph Tiffin would be devastated. My thoughts are with the group that worked so hard to save the courthouse. Nothing you can build will replace such a majestic piece of history. Tiffin has such beautiful churches and landmarks. It's a death to me.
  • Reply
    Diana & Jeff Nienberg Dec 29, 2011 @ 6:34 pm | delete
    I am so sad to hear the courthouse is going to be destroyed . I can not understand those commissioners. Every county seat in Ohio has a beautiful historic courthouse. Iit saddens me that Seneca County will lose this beautiful piece of history. How does Europe manage to keep buildings that are hundreds of years old?? Joseph Tiffin would be devastated. My thoughts are with the group that worked so hard to save the courthouse. Nothing you can build will replace such a majestic piece of history. Tiffin has such beautiful churches and landmarks. It's a death to me.
  • Reply
    Mr. and Mrs. James ;Herman 4230 Appomattox Drive Sylvania, Ohio 43560 Jan 12, 2010 @ 3:50 pm | delete
    Glad to see you are keeping the historical court house, we were at the meeting with the curator from Texas mos. back and have followed your progress inthe Toledo Blade and are reading your web site in Fla. now. We'll be looking forward to coming to Tiffin as it progresses. Good luck in your progress on this wonderful venture!
  • Reply
    Ohio USA Aug 27, 2009 @ 7:33 am | in reply to LinTK | delete
    A giant stride to be sure! Cheers!!!!
  • Reply
    LinTK Aug 25, 2009 @ 11:59 pm | in reply to Big A Stals | delete
    Big A: The happy news, as of today, is that the Seneca County Courthouse will ONCE AGAIN become the Seneca County Courthouse! Read the revised intro to this page, look up the Toledo Blade's story on it, & see for yourself that MIRACLES REALLY *DO* OCCUR!!

    As one building goes, so do the others. First we had the restoration of The Ritz Theatre; then the Shawhan's remarkable rebirth as an assisted living facility. Next will come the Courthouse, & after that, if like minds keep the ball rolling, the entire Historic Downtown District will continue to come back to life.
  • Reply
    Big A Stals Aug 24, 2009 @ 4:47 am | delete
    I really am surprised that no one has taken any initiative towards coming up with something to actually use the building. Being from Tiffin, I know that building stands out to help define what is left of the downtown after all the company's bailed out and are sitting as vacant. (American Standard should be reported to the EPA for all the illegal dumping to fill in the land under that parking lot out back and forced to bring clean up jobs back to Tiffin) Anyhoo... I cant help but think either the courthouse or the old East Jr. High School building being perfect locations for an international school/prep college for international students wishing to come to the states and learn English and head to college. Bring fresh money to Tiffin business, employ 50-100 people locally, actually have something downtown that doesn't have the activity of a morgue. I current teach in Vietnam, but would like to see a positive change for Tiffin's future. Tearing down the building is a real bad idea.
  • Reply
    LinTK Jul 28, 2009 @ 9:27 am | in reply to Nick | delete
    You brought up a couple of intersting points, Nick. Yes, we've been "getting by" w/out the Courthouse. But how well? Right now, we have our Juvenile & Probate courts in a building that is not ADA compliant. That's not a good thing for those who cannot use the building due to mobility problems (which includes me at times). This must be remedied ASAP. The Annex was built to house these courts.

    The county's citizens will not have to shoulder this alone, financially. There are grants out there to be had, if they're applied for. If nobody bothers to apply for them, someone else will get that money, & not US.

    I understand that quite a few of the people who would be directly influenced daily - judges, employees in various county dept's, etc - are fully IN FAVOR of what Mr Conaway & his panel of experts have put together.

    Come to the Ritz tomorrow (Wed) evening at 6p - see the presentation for yourself when Conaway & Co present it to the public. You will be SURPRISED!
  • Reply
    Nick Jan 7, 2011 @ 8:50 am | delete
    1. Building's not being ADA complaint: Agree to your first paragraph, but in the state of Tiffin let's step back and think out of the box for a change. I will guarantee that there are MUCH more economically feasible alternatives then to remodeling the courthouse. There are about 100 empty spaces in downtown tiffin and the surrounding area (unfortuantely).

    2. To your second paragrpah: Pretty much sums up the problem wtih all of our debt. GRANT MONEY IS OUR MONEY! So its our state tax money, our federal tax money, just because it isn't "COUNTY MONEY" doesn't mean it isn't our darn tax money being squandred. The state is in the red, the feds are in the red, but its okay to take money from the state for a project that a special interest group deems okay that the majority population doesn't want.

    3. Judges and people directly influenced will get a brand new space instead of having to make do with what they have or seek alternatives? I'm shocked. I also feel you use the word "expert" rather loosely. I am sure there are many panels of "experts" out there that would suggest we scrap the plans immediately for many verifiable reasons.

    4. To your additional post below...business owners leaving before it comes down? We've already seen the mass exodus of Tiffin that has been caused by private businesses not having any strategic advantage to locating in tiffin, Cheap Labor? No. Cheap Taxes? No (in fact these will go up at some point in an underhanded manor to pay off the loan that has to be taken....thus making the business climate in Tiffin and Seneca County even more unfavorable for businesses.

    5. We cut funding to Siedec, Sheriff, County Services, People, Schools, but let's take loan's and grants (which again are our tax dollars) to build new buildings and facilities to increase government expenditures in a shrining economy and demographic of Tiffin.
  • Reply
    Nick Jul 28, 2009 @ 6:48 am | delete
    Here's the point. Seneca county taxpayers are not hick's, they are realists and do not want to spend money that we don't have to no end. Something the current federal administration could also use a significant dose of.

    I digress, currently we have a economy in which unemployment is at 15% and people are losing their homes and jobs.

    Courthouse renovation or building costs are somewhere between $6mm or $9mm on the taxpayers of Seneca county.

    The county and city government has been getting done WITHOUT the use of the courthouse. We are laying of police, fire, and crossing guards..should we spend $6mm on a new/renovated building we've demonstrated we don't need?

    I am not advocating tearing it down or building new. In fact i guess my suggestion would be to go in remediate some of what needs fixing in the old courthouse, make the outside look nice and then mothball it. Open it up for tours to the local historical societies for a touring fee of course.
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LinTK

My name is LinTK. I have 2 children, one husband, and 4 ferrets. The ferrets are in charge.   I am not affiliated with anyone involved in any lawsuits... more »

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