MIAMI COUNTY, Ohio -- Miami County commissioners said they will be closing the old Miami County Home building on Troy-Sidney Road near Troy. They will be "moth balling the building to alleviate its burden on the general fund," said Commission President John "Bud" O'Brien.

The building is currently being used to house county offices, such as the Community Action Council, Children Services Board, County Transit System and storage for county records.

The closing will save the county over $400,000 in needed repairs and an estimated $73,000 per year in operating costs.

The commissioners said that "the county home has long been a maintenance albatross and that we can no longer justify keeping it in operation."

Most of the offices will relocate to the second floor of the Hobart Center for County Government at 510 W. Water St. in Troy by the end of the year.

"Closing the building will save the county significant money and it must be done," wrote O'Brien in a news release issued from the county commissioners' office last Wednesday afternoon to the media, elected officials, department heads and staff.

The county home building dates back to the mid-1850s. It was turned into offices and storage space for the county in the late '70s.