The Shelby County Council has begun the process of constructing a new office building.

Members of the County Council unanimously have approved an ordinance allowing the county to issue up to $5 million in bonds to cover the cost.

Plans have been in the works for several years to relocate the county's probation department from its overcrowded space in the old Shelby County Court House, 407 S. Harrison St., to the new facility.

Starting in 2015, the county bought properties on West Polk Street across from the Court House and Court House Annex.

Buildings then were demolished and the site cleared to await construction of the new building.

County Council president Tony Titus said after the council meeting Tuesday evening that approving the bond ordinance is just the first step in that process.

“The ordinance just, all it does is allow us to move forward, go through the bonding process, so when we get our final numbers from the architect, then we'll move forward with the bond next month. So that's kind of the intent. The reason, we're trying not to waste as much time doing it so we can get it put out for bids and get the process moving so we can start it,” he said.

Titus said the County Health Department and Purdue Extension office, both now at 1600 East State Road 44, are to go into to the new building as well.

Eventually, he said, they'd like to move the Extension office to the County Fairgrounds, 500 Frank St., which the county owns.

In other matters, the County Council approved spending nearly $380,000 for new computer servers.

IT consultant Rob Nolley, who's also a member of the Shelbyville City Council, said the system would have more capacity than existing data banks to store records the county and city must keep.

Nearly 70 percent of those records are from the Sheriff's Department, Nolley said.

Also, the County Council approved $38,325 in matching funds to pay for the cost of hiring a new deputy prosecutor. The remainder is to be paid with grant funding.