Riddle Block 1
Kautzman said the roof project will cost about $980,000.
“They replaced a portion of the roof this spring, and the slate portion is starting now and is expected to be completed by November,” she said. “They need to access the slate portion with the scaffolding.”
The county also is working on a $1.2 million upgrade for Portage County Juvenile Court, and another $350,000 upgrade for the Probate Court, both overseen by Judge Patricia Smith. The probate court work is finished, except for final steps such as touching up paint, Kautzman said
Truancy program moving
In January, Smith approached commissioners about relocating the court’s truancy diversion program to the fourth floor of Riddle Block 1. The court clerks previously used the space during a renovation of the Probate Court. The truancy diversion staff already is housed in the building.
Smith said the building already has security, and is less intimidating to youth and their parents than a courthouse.
“Any kind of truancy diversion programs should not be in the courthouse,” Smith said earlier this year. “The purpose is to keep the kids out of the courthouse.”
The nearly 4,000-square-foot space hosts a data tower for the county’s IT system, but otherwise is empty. The space is large enough to eventually offer other programs, such as mediation.
Smith told Portage County commissioners she wants to expand the program in an attempt to keep youth out of juvenile detention as part of a statein wide move to better address juvenile justice. Truancy, she said, is a growing program. Some lawmakers have floated the idea of paying students to go to school.
History of Riddle Block 1
In 1831, Clark Carriage Company, owned by N.D. Clark, was established. In 1861, Clark sold the company to his relatives, Charles Merts and Henry W. Riddle, who renamed the company Merts and Riddle Coach and Hearse Company. When the company closed in 1926, many buildings used in the carriage building industry transitioned into real estate, and those historic landmarks became known as the Riddle Blocks.
Late historian Jack Schafer, who led a tour of the Riddle Blocks in 2017, said then that Henry Riddle built 14 buildings