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Wood County Courthouse offices to be moved

Probate Office move triggers shift in locations

PARKERSBURG — Wood County Commission gave its approval Thursday to move offices in the courthouse to give the county Probate Office more privacy.

The commission approved a plan presented by Wood County Assessor David Nohe and Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes to move the county’s Probate Office to the Wood County Assessor’s mapping room, which would then be moved to an unused office in the courthouse. That change would then prompt the moving of county compliance officer Sarah Farnsworth to where the Probate Office is now located.

“It did not take us long to see that there was a need as you were crowded in Probate,” Nohe said. “People come here and have zero privacy. There can be two families talking about their loved ones and their estate.”

Recently the assessor’s office reduced the number of employees in the mapping room from three to one.

“We think it would be sufficient to move the mapping office to a smaller room,” Nohe said.

The room for the Probate Office is almost ready to go.

The Probate Office is on the courthouse’s main floor, the building’s second floor, next to the county commission chambers. Officials have said the office is not well marked, people regularly have to ask where it is and people end up having to wait outside of the office in a common public area for their turn to go in.

The old mapping room is on the third floor of the courthouse. The office has two rooms that could be turned into the Probate Office and a waiting area for people coming to the office for business. It would provide more privacy.

It is also right off the elevator on the third floor, making it easier for people to find, officials said.

The mapping office and its equipment would be moved to an unused corner office on the same floor next to the Buckley Conference Room. Nohe said there was a possibility of moving two commercial appraisers to that office and move mapping somewhere else, but they won’t know if they would do that until after the new year.

Wood County Administrator Marty Seufer said work would have to be done in the Buckley Conference Room to a wall that it shares with the current mapping room to better insulate the room as noise could easily travel between the spaces. He also wants a doorway cut between his office and the former Probate Office as the main entrance for his office would be the main entrance for the new compliance office.

Seufer said they will need to update the signage around the courthouse to highlight the changes.

With the exception of some filing cabinets, Rhodes said he could have the Probate Office moved over a weekend so there would be no interruption to its daily operations.

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo believes the move will make everything better for the people coming to the courthouse to do business.

“It would be more people oriented and working better for people to communicate with staff,” he said.

Officials said engineering reports say the building can support what they want to do.

Commission President Blair Couch wants to start work with the wall between the Buckley Room and the old mapping room. Next would be moving probate and mapping and changing the signage.

The unused office has items being stored there that came from the old St. Joseph’s Hospital, including pictures.

Couch wants to see if a display could be set up of these items to highlight local history, possibly in the Buckley Room. Otherwise, it might be boxed up and put in storage, officials said.

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