NORWICH – With the Chenango County Court system finally settled in a new location on Eaton Avenue in Norwich, county officials are taking on phase two of a largescale department relocation project.

In October, the Chenango County Committee on Agriculture, Buildings and Grounds saw conceptual floor plans to convert the 1991 wing of the Chenango County Office Building, located on the north side of the building, into space for the Mental Health Department’s Drug and Alcohol Abuse Clinic currently located in a leased facility on Leilani's Way just outside the City of Norwich.

The 1991 wing is home to a number of employee offices, including the Clerk of the Board and Chairman of the Board, as well as the County Board Chambers and committee meeting room. Space will be freed up when those offices are moved to the third floor of the west side of the County Office Building. The third floor had been occupied by the court offices prior to their summertime move to The Eaton Center on Eaton Avenue.

The goal, according to Board Clerk RC Woodford, is to have the alcohol and drug abuse clinic relocated before the county’s lease on the Leilani’s Way facility expires on April 30, 2015.

“Essentially, what’s mostly required to accommodate space for Mental Health in the County Office Building is moving partitions,” Woodford said, adding that there are no plans of doing extensive renovations. Even so, he said work must go to bid among area contractors.