YOUNGSTOWN — The cost of rent at the former Bottom Dollar store in Youngstown would be significantly less for the Mahoning County Board of Elections that is looking to relocate its offices than it would be at the Patriot Building in Austintown.

The analysis was done on behalf of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which owns the Patriot Building and would take ownership of the former Bottom Dollar if the city is willing to accept $1 for the latter structure, said David Betras, the election board’s chairman. The WRPA shared the information Tuesday with the board of elections.

The monthly rent at Bottom Dollar would be about $27,000, while it would be about $55,000, $71,000 or $84,000 at the Patriot Building, depending on the amount of space the board would want, Betras said.

The discussion of the price came during a lengthy elections board meeting Tuesday.

It’s the latest development in the board’s ongoing saga to get out of the county-owned Oakhill Renaissance Place on Oak Hill Avenue. The former hospital on the city’s South Side has housed the elections board for nearly 20 years.

Election board officials have vocally complained for more than two years about the conditions, with three water leaks occurring in the past year.

Three of the four election board members — Betras, Sandra Barger and Denise Bayer — favor the Bottom Dollar location on Glenwood Avenue on the city’s South Side for the new offices.

Board member Lisa Robinson said everything is on the table and she is not ready to commit.

Betras said ideally the city would give away or sell the 18,285-square-foot former building, which has been vacant since January 2015 when a grocery store there closed. The city used $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan money in 2024 to renovate a portion of the building for an infant mortality clinic, which won’t move there. The rest of the building needs improvements, but it might not be as extensive for the board because it needs storage space.

Neither the board nor the WRPA has engaged city officials in negotiations.

Youngstown Councilwoman Cynthia McWilson, D-6th Ward, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said of the board’s request to give the building to the WRPA, “We don’t have any specifics. That’s part of the problem.”

Betras said the Bottom Dollar building is ideal for the board, but if it is going to be able to get permission from the county commissioners to finalize a deal, the building has to be either given for free to the WRPA or sold for $1 because of the cost of renovating the structure, Betras said.

If that occurs, Betras said the board would sign a 20-year lease with the WRPA at the location and be an anchor tenant along the Glenwood Avenue corridor. But any agreement would need approval from the county commissioners, and no formal presentation has been provided to the city.

The Patriot Building, a former call center in Austintown vacant for about six years, is owned by the WRPA.

County commissioners have offered space for the board of elections at a proposed $60 million county government facility at the former Eastern Gateway Community College location in downtown Youngstown.

Board officials have objected to that primarily over concerns about parking for early in-person voters, space for curbside voting and the need to be on the first floor. The county building hasn’t been designed.

Board members said Tuesday that they would consider the proposed downtown building if the commissioners could guarantee 200 parking spots for early voters as well as curbside voting space and being on the ground floor.

With the third leak in a year occurring at Oak Hill a few weeks ago, Robinson said the board needs to immediately move its voting equipment out of the 125-year-old building before it is permanently damaged.

Robinson recommended the board move the equipment to a county-owned building on Bev Road in Boardman. Barger said she also wants to move the warehouse.

Betras said retrofitting a building for the board’s voting equipment would cost a lot of money, and commissioners would be hesitant to invest that much in a temporary solution.

While there were hours of discussions at Tuesday’s meeting about moving, the board again made no decisions.

ELECTIONS

The board voted 4-0 Tuesday to certify two independent candidates who filed for the same Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judicial seat.

The board determined that Newton Falls Law Director Jeff Limbian and Robert Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor since 1999, had enough valid signatures to get on the Nov. 3 ballot for the judicial seat.

They will face Ralph Rivera, who won the May 5 Republican primary, and J. Michael Thompson, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, for the position in the general election.

Also Tuesday, coin flips decided the winners in two Republican central committee races that ended in ties. Recounts on Tuesday had the same outcomes.

Because of the coin flips, Barbara A. Noufer was certified as the winner in Youngstown 7C over Josie Lyon, and Ioannis N. Kalouris was declared the winner over David J. Aey in Campbell 2A.

The board also didn’t certify 19 Republican central committee winners and Jerry Dallas, the only candidate in the Youngstown 2F race, because 18 of them didn’t vote in the primary election and two voted in the Democratic primary, said Tom McCabe, board director and chairman of the county Republican Party.

That meant that the 20 didn’t vote for themselves, including 12 who were unopposed. Dallas received zero votes.

In order to be certified in a political central committee race, a person has to be registered with that party, which would have occurred if he or she voted in the primary. Among the 20, 13 never voted in any Republican primary, including the May 5 one, McCabe said.

Even though they didn’t vote for themselves and aren’t eligible to serve on the central committee, Michael Medvec in Poland Township 9 received 99 votes and William Mellott in Springfield Township 4 got 98 votes.