Chenango County officials are entertaining a notion to raze the 1960-era office building in Norwich to make way for a new $35 million facility to be built in its place. (Photo by Shawn Magrath)

NORWICH – Chenango County leaders are bearing down on a $35 million building project, pledging on Monday to allocate up to $1.5 million for consultation and pre-building services from a private Binghamton-based construction company.


The County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution this week permitting an agreement with LeChase Construction for project management prior to the start of actual construction.

The move is just the latest in a series of rulings on the building project that the county board has made this year, including a motion in May greenlighting a contract with Hunt Engineers, Architects, and Surveyors of Horseheads, NY, for up to $1.7 million for an engineering and design. In June, board members approved the same amount in bonds to cover costs of planning and laying out specifications of the project.

The county treasurer’s office has created a new project account in the county’s budget to track the costs of the project.

Monday’s resolution was met with pushback from some board members who argued the county hasn’t done its due diligence and should think harder about alternatives to a new building. The scope of the project includes razing the 1960’s-era wing and building a new wing connecting to the 1991 wing on the building’s north side.