NORWICH – The long-awaited game of dominoes was tipped off last week when lawmakers approved expenditures for the Chenango County Board of Supervisors’ new digs in the 1991 wing of the County Office Building.

The move is the first in a planned string of office switches to space formerly occupied by the Department of Social Services and within the older office building itself. DSS moved across Court Street to renovated and refurbished offices in the former sheriff’s office and jail last year.

Lawmakers agreed to use $10,000 within the board chairman’s budget for new carpeting and furniture and to build a wall. Second floor space will eventually accommodate the supervisors’ board room, board clerk’s office, chairman’s office, county attorney’s offices, and committee room.

The new boardroom is to become “a multi-purpose room” complete with state-of-the art audio visual and recording systems that all departments and agencies can use for training and other purposes, Chairman Richard B. Decker, R-N. Norwich, said. The existing boardroom furniture would be replaced with moveable tables instead of desks in the new area.

The first move will free up space for the courts, the district attorney, the public defender and probation offices, in effect doubling it. The Sixth District Judicial Court has complained for several years about overcrowding, a lack of client/attorney confidentiality and not enough records storage. Decker said he was hopeful that the courts will be “well satisfied with what we are giving them.”