Jun. 8—Westmoreland County will pay more than $68,000 to rent space for an expanded human services department that will be located about six miles from the courthouse in Greensburg.
Commissioners on Thursday approved an 11-month lease for seven suites in the Business Information Center at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood. The county will rent about 4,400 square feet of office space to serve as a base of operations for the department's Community Relations and Prevention team.
Human services Director Rob Hamilton said about 12 to 15 staffers will be based in the college offices.
"Our hope is to be out in the community," Hamilton said.
He will work from an office at the Westmoreland County Courthouse to oversee operations of the department that was created last summer and expanded during the first half of 2023 to oversee all social service programs operated by the county, including the children's bureau, behavioral health, aging, veteran affairs and the drug overdose task force.
As part of the expansion approved last month by commissioners, the department will hire an administrative director, public relations specialist, homeless prevention manager and community education specialist, all new areas of focus for the agency that administers about 35% of the county's $420 million budget.
The decision to locate a majority of the new staff at the community college was born from both a space shortage at the courthouse and a desire to focus the department's efforts throughout the county, commissioners and Hamilton said.
"This is his vision, to streamline human services overall and make them more efficient. This is a way to do that to hire more staff to look at duplication of services and do it under one roof," Commissioner Sean Kertes said. "We are out of space at the courthouse, and we have everyone looking for more space."
The county government over the last several decades has spread its footprint beyond the courthouse. Area Agency on Aging staff operates from offices installed in the former Troutman's department store building in Greensburg, about two blocks from the courthouse.
Public safety workers and 911 operations are based at a complex built two decades ago off Donahoe Road in Hempfield.
"We have been expanding, and that is going to continue. Obviously we would love to have everybody under one roof, but we don't have the space to do that. We are discussing how to make this work to try to see how we can arrange things so we don't have to do this again in the future," Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher said.
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich by email at rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .