Photo by Joselyn King Ohio County Clerk Mike Kelly examines the progress on renovations happening in the County Clerk’s Office space. The office is being downsized to provide more room to the County Prosecutor’s Office.

WHEELING – Dust continues to fly at the City-County Building in downtown Wheeling, and now it’s the county offices’ turn to be relocated during construction.

The City-County Building is presently undergoing a $12 million renovation to replace the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the facility. Other work to reconfigure space is presently happening on the second floor.

County Administrator Randy Russell said the commission and clerk’s offices have been relocated for about three weeks in the first floor area that previously served as home to the Wheeling Police Department.

The County Assessor’s Office and the County Sheriff’s Tax Office, meanwhile, are working out of the former law library on the fourth floor.

It is expected the county offices will remain in temporary spaces for about another two months.

So far, things seem to be working out for employees in the temporary spaces, according to County Administrator Randy Russell.

“It gets stuffy and warm in here, but it’s that time of year,” he said. “It heats up quickly and stays warm.

“Overall, it’s a pretty good space.”

County Clerk Mike Kelly agreed, but he anxiously awaits the move back upstairs.

“We’re excited. Everything has been working out surprisingly well down here,” he said

“But in a few months we’re going to be moved back upstairs to our space, and at that point we’re going to all be excited because we’re going to have new offices with no (records) books.”

The many tomes of historical records in Ohio County that once filled the County Clerk’s Office space have been moved to a site at The Highlands.

Kelly, as clerk, championed digitizing the existing records books that were kept in his office. With his legislative push and some help from State Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, county clerk offices in the state no longer have to keep record books in their offices if the information has been digitally scanned.

And Kelly noted the Ohio County Clerk’s Office is now digitizing all new documents as well, and new hardbound books recording new information are no longer being produced.

“We stopped producing books in July 2019, but we still go through the same process of creating books on computer with a book number and page number,” he explained. “When we reach a certain point, it starts a new book automatically.”

The county has produced 316 digital books since July 2019. Kelly said he has checked with other counties, who report they are presently paying $300 to $500 to continue to produce each hard-bound book.

“We are saving a lot of money,” he explained. “And by not having the books, we were able to free up space for other county agencies. It is working really well.”

The renovations happening on the second floor of the City-County Building will actually reduce the current County Clerk’s Office space in half, providing additional area for the County Prosecutor’s Office to expand. The reconfiguration of office space also will give the County Assessor’s Office a chance to move its field office from the courthouse annex building to the second floor closer to the main office.

Kelly noted there is another benefit from the decreasing the size of his office. It will be the first time ever the County Clerk’s Office staff will be “all together” and not working in different sections of the space. This will mean employees will be able to learn from each other and how to do each other’s jobs, Kelly explained.

“It helps if someone is sick, or if someone is busy and they need help, some other staff member will be able to go and help them,” he continued. “When we divided into sections, you couldn’t see what was going on in the other sections. Those people were sweating it out with many demands, while there were others who could have helped them but did not. So this will work out very, very well.”

City of Wheeling offices on the third floor were relocated earlier this year amid construction, and have now returned to refreshed areas.

The next phase of construction will involve the Ohio County Prosecutor’s Office temporarily moving from their space on the second floor to the former law library on the fourth floor.

The entire construction project is expected to be completed by the end of summer.