Above, Robert Morrison of Morrison Real Estate Appraisal Service checks Butler County property records at the County Government Center's annex. At right, Amy Francis, county chief assessor, and Dawn Steiner, clerk typist, work at one of the county records computers in the annex. The second floor of the annex now houses the mapping and GIS, planning, assessment, tax claim and farmland preservation departments.

The section of the County Government Center annex overlooking South Jackson and West Vogely streets is complete and open for business.

Mark Gordon, the county's chief of economic development and planning, said the 12,500-square-foot second floor was left unfinished for future use when the annex was added to the north side of the County Government Center in 2015.

He said the county commissioners wanted to group departments that work closely together for efficiency instead of an employee of one department having to access another department several floors away in the five-story County Government Center.

So, the second floor of the annex — known as the “UL” or upper level because it is above the parking garage on the ground level — was outfitted to house the mapping and GIS, planning, assessment, tax claim and farmland preservation departments in a bright, open floor plan.The departments and their 22 employees came from the first and fifth floors of the county government center, Gordon said.Grouping those departments together also makes it easier for members of the public who come to the offices to search titles; search gas, oil and mineral rights on properties; or find the owner of a property on the handful of public computers in the assessment department or ask a question in the mapping or planning departments.

“The goal here is to simplify things for the taxpayers,” Gordon said.John Campbell, county director of facilities and operations, said work on the $945,000 project began in December. Employees moved into their new digs June 1.Ashley Gibson of the mapping and GIS department said she works closely with the county planning department.Gibson's office was on the government center's first floor and planning was on the fifth floor.“Now, I take a few steps and they're right here,” she said of her co-workers in the planning department.She said the new space is more open, contains all materials and records in one area and offers more storage for maps and historical data on county properties.

Gordon said the commissioners are still considering how best to reconfigure the departments' former offices in the county government center, but they have the taxpayers and workspace efficiency in mind.Gordon is enjoying his new office in the planning department, but said the priority in finishing the space was public access.“It allows for a more efficient way of serving the public,” he said.

County mapper Ashley Gibson looks over an aerial map in the Government Center building's new second floor office space.

Amy Francis, county chief assessor, and Dawn Steiner, clerk typist, work one of the county records computers in the Government Center's newly finished office space.

County clerk Cathi Collwel and field assessor Dave Kriley look through property records in the Government Center's newly opened office space.