NORWICH – As the summer deadline approaches to relocate judicial offices from the Chenango County Office Building to The Eaton Center office complex in Norwich, county officials are still making significant adjustments to the project budget.

Members of the county's finance committee recently moved to increase the local share of the project by $50,000, citing certain expenses that were underestimated when the county Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the move last September.

According to Chenango County Board Clerk RC Woodford, the extra money will be used to cover additional expenses related to technology and communications infrastructure. This includes cabling, telephone systems, camera systems, video conferencing, and other communications needs that are specific to New York State judicial standards.

“There are certain things associated with the court system occupancy that you wouldn't see in a normal office,” explained Woodford. “When we did the 2014 budget, we segregated these court system costs into one unit. Part of that was fix up costs to the Eaton Center and at the time, we could only guess as to what the number would end up being.”

The county originally budgeted $30,000 for those expenses. But with modifications at the Eaton Center well underway, officials are ironing out details that couldn't be planned in advance, Woodford added. Total cost of communications and technology infrastructure now tops more than $133,000 ($83,000 of which will be reimbursed by the state, leaving the remaining $50,000 to be footed by local taxpayers).