Bath, NY (WENY) – The Steuben County Legislature hosted an open house for the public of the new County Office Building Thursday morning with a building dedication. the planning for this building has been about a four year process and Steuben county manager Jack Wheeler says, it will suit the county's needs for decades to come.

The new three-story Steuben County Annex building is located just across the street from the Steuben County Legislature office. They already owned the land across the street so finding property for the new building was never and issue. Before the new building could be built two buildings had to be torn down to create space. The annex building will house the county board of elections and electronic voting machines, with a records storage room on the first floor for frequently accessed records. The renovation cost about four million dollars.

“The state courts and additional state mandates and court functions have forced us to hire more attorneys and also find additional court space. So our current county office building we're literally being moved out of so we had to find a plan in the legislature that took about two years to really study it. We came up with a plan for this building and we did it in a real economical way but we think the building is fantastic.” Said Jack Wheeler, Steuben County Manager.

The hardest part of this process was not the construction itself but instead getting everyone to agree on it.

“Well I think first and foremost we all had to agree on where we wanted the building to be located and how we wanted it to look and be functional, that was our main thing. Of course anytime you're working with contractors you have issues but these contractors were excellent and we couldn't appreciate that more. Said Carole Ferratella, Steuben County Legislator.

The conference room can be divided into three separate conference rooms to allow for smaller meetings or left open to accommodate large group classes and training.