EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bricks & Mortar Report provides updates on major construction projects in Chenango County.

Chenango County Historical Society museum:
• The original plan for renovating the Chenango County Historical Society has been downsized with the downturn in the economy and increased building costs, said interim Museum Director Diane Hamblin.
• The board’s new plan involved transforming the assembly room in the Rexford Street Museum to include two executive offices and an enclosed gift shop. About $20,000 was set aside for the project. Executives are nearly ready to move in, Hamblin said. The room will still be used for business meetings and programs.
• The second phase, scheduled for September, targets the 19th Century building next door at 43 Rexford St. The interior will be gutted and rebuilt as the James S. Flanagan Research Center. It will house the county historian’s office plus historical materials and photos from the Society and the Norwich Pharmacal Museum’s archival collection. There are no plans to move the museum from the Eaton Center at this time, said Hamlin.
• “The goal is to have all research materials under one roof at 43 Rexford St. and the antique objects in the museum,” she said.
• Fundraising is well under way for the second phase’s estimated $200,000 cost. Architectural drawings are complete. A final phase three of the project, estimated at $100,000, would add an elevator, handicapped entrances and improved bathrooms at the Museum.

Chenango County Public Works Department:
• Progress on the $2.3 million county Road 35 re-surfacing project continued last week with guiderails, shoulders and drainage areas completed. Workers will begin paving pending the go head from state Department of Transportation officials and weather permitting.
• Stone and oil will go down beginning tomorrow through Friday on county Road 27 and on county Road 2 from Smithville to county Road 5 in German.
• Shoulders were scheduled to go in on county Road 4 this week, and four miles of county Road 16 will be cracked and sealed.

Former Corner Cigar building:
• Contractors demolished the steel and concrete front of the former Corner Cigar Store and All American Sports shops in downtown Norwich only to find, after removing four layers of flooring, that it wasn’t the original front.
• Owner and local lawyer Adam Spence said the building was recessed and featured large display windows.
• Plans are to restore the storefront, move out an interior staircase to the sidewalk for access to the second floor, create two loft apartments and a law office upstairs, and then renovate the first floor for retail occupancy.
• The two buildings offer 2,600 square feet of space. Spence said he has no estimate for a completion date.

Employment stats:
• The Chenango County Office of Employment and Training reported an 8.4 percent unemployment rate in May. The figure was 8.6 percent in April, and compares to a 5.9 percent unemployment rate in May of 2008.
• Of the five surrounding counties, only Cortland County, at 8.6 percent unemployment, has a higher rate than Chenango County’s.

Housing Starts (modular, double wide and stick built):
• Chenango County Codes Enforcement office reported six new housing starts in May. One in the Village of Afton and one each in the towns of Lincklaen, McDonough, Plymouth, Preston and Sherburne.