NORWICH – Chenango County supervisors still have their eyes on the former Morrisville State College building on 16 S. Broad St. in downtown Norwich. Members of a standing committee went into executive session this week to discuss buying it, and a referral was made to talk more at next month’s meeting of the full board.
In May, the board agreed to spend $5,000 on an appraisal of the 36,000-square-foot, three-story office building. Clerk RC Woodford said the present discussions regard negotiations with the potential seller. “We are deciding what type of negotiations we want,” he said.
The building has been mostly vacant since the college moved to its present campus at the Eaton Center six years ago. It was built in 1992.
For several years now, the Sixth Judicial District of the New York Unified Court System has requested more chambers, courtrooms and meeting rooms in the county’s seat. While recent renovations to the County Office Building’s third floor have accommodated the courts, additional square footage is still necessary, they say, due to a growing number of cases and the need for more security in the building.
Lawmakers have also discussed consolidating space it leases for the district’s law library and Supreme Court Judge Elizabeth Garry with the courts, either into more offices on the third floor of the County Office Building or elsewhere. In the past, supervisors have suggested moving the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services from leased space at Leilani’s Way in the Town of Norwich into the Mental Health Department at the County Office Building.