Questions surround future of CCB

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - An announcement made November 19 by the City of Fort Wayne to pull the plug on its attempts to co-locate operations with Allen County will leave roughly 100,000 sq. ft. of space empty in the City County Building.

The City made that decision after the Allen County Council did not approve enough money to fund the two branches of government moving together into Renaissance Square.

The lack of funding did let down some hopefuls on the county's side like Allen County Commissioner Bill Brown.

"I am personally disappointed," Brown said. "I just think you lose this intrinsic value of having the commissioners [and] the mayor all in the same building."

Now, Brown and his fellow Allen County Commissioners Nelson Peters and Linda Bloom have a lot of work ahead of them. The question is; what will happen to the half of the City County Building that's soon to be empty?

Brown suggested some options include moving the highway and building departments into the City County Building. However, at this point it is not clear to the commissioners how much space will be available. It remains possible that some city offices will remain working with the county while others will not.

"We need to get a little more of a predictable idea of what the Mayor truly wants to move out of the building," Brown said.

The Mayor seems willing to take his time answering that inquiry.

"We're in November of 2009. Our lease does not expire until December 2010 and I've already let the County Commissioners know that the initial renovation and move will be the Police Department so it buys us some time," Henry said.

The Mayor plans to move the other city offices into Renaissance Square by the end of next year.