Photo by Joselyn King Ohio County fire service fee clerk Michelle Olejasz settles back into her regular desk on Wednesday. The Ohio County Commission offices and others on the second floor of the City-County Building have been displaced in recent weeks as renovations and heating/air conditioning upgrades take place in the building.

Photo by Joselyn King
Ohio County fire service fee clerk Michelle Olejasz settles back into her regular desk on Wednesday. The Ohio County Commission offices and others on the second floor of the City-County Building have been displaced in recent weeks as renovations and heating/air conditioning upgrades take place in the building.

WHEELING — Ohio County employees on the second floor of the City-County Building in Wheeling — displaced since early spring — are now returning to their regular office spaces as renovations to their areas become complete.

The facility has been undergoing a replacement of the heating and air conditioning systems and other upgrades for more than two years, with many county offices displaced since March.

Some of the county employees had been working out of space in the former Wheeling Police Station rooms on the first floor. The Ohio County Clerk’s Office will remain there for probably the next two weeks as construction on a front counter continues in their new space, according to County Administrator Randy Russell.

County commission offices had been sharing the first floor space with the clerk’s office. They

began moving back into their regular offices on Wednesday.

The County Assessor’s Office and the County Tax Department had been operating out of the former law library on the fourth floor. Both offices moved back into their spaces earlier this week, and were open and assisting customers on Wednesday.

“We pretty much moved everybody back in today,” Russell said of the commission office. “Now it’s just a matter of organizing everything, and putting documents back into file cabinets.”

Technicians were on site hooking up phones and computers for the office.

Ohio County commissioners will be able to return to their regular chambers when they next meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Russell said.

In the assessor’s office, Deputy Assessor Jessica Klinger acknowledged it was “nice to be back home.”

“It was OK working upstairs,” she said. “We got a good perspective being in the same office as the tax office because people get confused. They don’t know if they come here, or go there.

“It was nice to hear how they communicate with the taxpayers, and how we communicate with them in the same room.”

The biggest challenge was space, she continued.

“There was just one doorway,” Klinger said. “The way the computers were set up, people at the DMV (West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles registration renewals) were crowding the door. Then people couldn’t get through to the Assessor’s Office or to pay their taxes.

“But we made it work.”

The next area to undergo renovations is going to be the former police station area that has been serving as temporary office spaces, Russell continued. Work will start at the back of the area as the County Clerk’s Office continues to work out of the front offices.

Plans then call for work to begin on the south end of the first floor on city of Wheeling offices, including the city’s water department, health department and finance department areas, according to Russell.

Construction on Wheeling City Council chambers “could be some time out,” he continued. The Ohio County Board of Education also has been using the space for meetings as their board office and meeting room is repaired from flood damage.