INDEPENDENCE — Kenton County's search for new office space is half over.

        Tuesday, Fiscal Court voted 3-0 to spend $1.5 million to buy the Preston Financial Services building at 501 Main St. in Covington.

        “We have searched and secured property that will meet our needs immediately,” Judge-executive Dick Murgatroyd said.

        Five offices — judge-executive, treasurer, emergency manage ment, the civil section of the county attorney's office and county commissioners — will move into their new digs this summer.

        “We can move in as early as July 1,” Deputy Judge-executive Scott Kimmich said.

        The county needs office space because of the expansion of the county jail at the courthouse in Covington.

        Mr. Kimmich said the county still needs to lease office space for the sheriff, county clerk and property valuation administrator offices. Once the work on the jail is done, those offices will return to the Covington courthouse.

        The Preston building is one of eight the county considered. It is a two-story structure with a finished basement, and Mr. Kimmich said there is about 14,000 square feet of space and 50 parking spaces.

        “It's pre-wired for information systems,” Mr. Kimmich said. “It has handicap accessibility.”

        In related matters, Fiscal Court hired Ball and Blodgett LLC of Columbus as a consultant for the jail renovation and began seeking design bids.

        County Treasurer Ivan Frye said bidders have until May 1 to submit plans. The county is then expected to let out bids for architects and select one late this summer.

        In other action, commissioners:

        • Appointed Tom Mackie as general manager for the Golf Courses of Kenton County, a 54-hole layout on Richardson Road.

        • Approved a resolution to seek applications for parks director, a job the county is creating.

Hospital crunch worsens
OxyContin: Pain drug becomes the 'heroin of the Midwest'
Physician caught up in OxyContin scheme
TV's sex content climbs, study says
Deters bows out as GOP chief
Ditch the coat - for a day or 2
Brookville woman dies in collision
FBI aids in Hamilton racism
RADEL: State quarters
Village disbands its police force
AIDS fight targeting young, gay black men
CROWLEY: Bunning gunning for Greenspan
SAMPLES: Connections
Colerain buys flood-prone homes
Commandment group buys TV time
Company downsizing spawns fair for jobless
CovCath plans $7.5M home
Error puts schools in money bind
Genesis problems known for years, Heimlich says
Kenton obtains office space
Ky. Assembly has contentious first day
Ky. loses bid to reinstate death sentence against Gall
Lines form for heating program
Mason hires new fire chief
Merger of two cities questioned
Murder suspect seeks 3-judge panel for new trial
Patrons of Music Hall will get new lift
Robot project teaches Highlands students engineering
School district land swap rejected; tax hike fails again
Senate committee OKs reform bills
Suspect says killing was self-defense
Suspect's transfer blocked
Taft demands child-support flaws be fixed
Three men killed when their vehicle falls through thin ice in Lake Erie accident
Woodlawn tax boost passes; school measures elsewhere fail
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report