In March, the State Office of Mental Health diagnosed the Cayuga County Mental Health Clinic with a space problem.

On Wednesday, the county's Public Works Committee took the first step to alleviate the space issue by planning to build more. Committee members passed a resolution for Beardsley Design Associates to continue forward creating additional plans to renovate existing clinic space and construct an extension to the current facility located in the basement of the Old Post Office on Genesee Street in Auburn.

The facility received nine citations from the state OMH in March, categorizing the clinic as Tier 3, the state's lowest certification category. Many of the citations referred to a lack of space in the clinic. Due to the amount of citations, the state only reissued its operation license for six out of the possible 36 months.

"No one wants to bring this to the (Legislature) floor tonight," Legislature Chairman George Fearon said. "We started to look at the project in this direction. If we continue to use more than one location we are going to need to duplicate receptions rooms, restrooms and staff in each facility."

Although committee members thoroughly debated the resolution both criticizing and complimenting the plans, only Legislator Peter Tortorici, R-Auburn, opposed its approval.

"We are centrally looking at a $3 million project. Spending $14,000 to see what else could be done is money well spent," Tortorici said. "We want to save the taxpayers money."

For more on this story, read Thursday's edition of The Citizen.