NORWICH – The architects who are designing the exteriors of the former Chenango County sheriff’s office and jail on West Park Place in the city were given an additional directive this week: To design the interior spaces as well.
Chenango County will partner with the Department of Social Services for an estimated $400,000 on top of the project’s already approved $2.3 million price tag. A motion was made and seconded to send the directive for approval by the full board of supervisors next month.
The porches, columns, doors, walls and other exterior work, plus the demolition of the old jail’s cell block, will be covered with taxpayer dollars.
A core group consisting of two supervisors, Social Services Commissioner Bette Osborne, Clerk of the Board RC Woodford and the architects have begun outlining programming needs. John Lawrence of John Snyder Architects said his firm planned to present bid documents during the first quarter of next year.
The committee discussed the time-line for leasing and hanging the communications cables from the newly-erected towers located around the county. No date was given for that project, however, nor for when the 911 Emergency operations equipment would be removed from the former Sheriff’s Office. Physical demolition and renovation work at the office building site cannot proceed until then, the architects have said.
Supervisor Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, asked whether the county could expect to come out ahead by serving the space needs of the Sixth Judicial Court District once it occupies the third floor of the County Office Building.
Committee Chairman Robert D. Briggs, R-Afton, said it was too early to predict any savings by moving departments around, but that the county “accomplished its goal” of partnering with both DSS and the court system in order to maximize funding streams and limit the impact on taxpayers.
“We are solving a lot of space issues that have been hanging around out there for my 14 years anyway,” said Committee member Linda E. Natoli, R-City of Norwich Wards 4, 5 and 6.
In other committee news, a planner for the Chenango County Planning and Development Department presented an updated map and report of the largest agricultural district in the county. Ag District #5, one of six designated, is comprised of 17,000 acres in the towns of Afton, Bainbridge, Guilford, Oxford and Coventry and the villages of Afton and Bainbridge.
The district was last updated in 1995. Since then, it has lost 7,671 acres representing 650 parcels. Viable agricultural land makes up only 57 percent. Anything under 50 percent is not considered an official district, Dan Behuniak said.
The Planning Department and Farmland Protection Board have expressed concern that the trend will continue, Behuniak told members of the committee. Increased commercial and residential development pressure, adverse milk prices, and the affects of diminishing interest for farming by succeeding generations are all contributing to the loss of agricultural land.
“Some argue that good sprawl (subdivision) should be permitted because it fills the county coffers with tax dollars,” he said. “But studies show that only ranchland and farmland consistently produce a tax surplus.”
The planner pointed to a recent University of Colorado study that found an average 160 acres hay field produced $540 in taxes yet only required $290 in services. Houses on the approximately same acreage generated around $21,000 in taxes, but required more than $23,000 in services.
“The Chenango County Planning Department recommends land use planning, zoning, utilizing planning tools such as easements, and aggressive marketing to entice farming groups, such a the Amish, as a way to protect farming in Chenango County,” the report stated.