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Since You Asked: County building could be filled with other workers Thursday Feb 23, 2017 at 12:01 AM Jackson County Health & Human Services has been in their new location for a couple of years. Around 180 positions are to be eliminated soon. What will become of the vacated space and office equipment in the new building? In building this new location, how were facility needs projected? Were bonds sold to pay for it? — G.   The Jackson County Health & Human Services Building on Holly Street in downtown Medford was completed in 2014 for nearly $36 million, including an adjacent eight-story parking garage. County officials and nonprofit organizations celebrated its opening and the vision to provide one-stop shopping there for social services, including mental health care. County workers who had been scattered in nine area buildings were stationed there alongside groups including La Clinica, Living Opportunities and HIV Alliance. In January, Jackson Care Connect, a coordinated care organization serving Oregon Health Plan patients, began an 18-month transition process to move its patients with mental health issues from county mental health workers to other community providers such as ColumbiaCare. AllCare, another coordinated care organization, is in the midst of negotiations with the county and may also pull its patients from Jackson County Mental Health services. Those two changes could trigger layoffs of 200 county workers, including 180 in mental health. Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan said no bonds were sold, nor were taxes raised to finance construction of the building. Originally, all of Jackson County Health & Human Services would have fit into an old federal building on the site, he said. Plans had to be made for a larger building because of increasing numbers of people to be served, Jordan said. The 2010 passage of the federal Affordable Care Act greatly expanded the number of people eligible for government-subsidized health insurance and swelled Oregon Health Plan enrollment numbers. Jackson County hired more staff as it began treating far more people with mental health issues through contracts with the coordinated care organizations. Even with a larger building, not all of Jackson County's health and human services workers could fit. If the county dramatically scales back its number of mental health workers, the vacated space will be filled by moving other Jackson County Health & Human Services functions into the building — consolidating department services alongside community organization partners as originally intended, Jordan said. Any excess equipment will be redistributed, charged to other county departments or sold, he said. — Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by email to [email protected]. To see a collection of columns, go to mailtribune.com/youasked. We're sorry, but the volume of questions received fprevents us from answering all of them.