Cortland looking to house municipal offices in former Farmers National Bank building

CORTLAND, Ohio (WKBN) — The City of Cortland has its sights set on a building downtown that could consolidate municipal offices and support growth in the downtown business district.

The City of Cortland is looking to purchase the old Cortland Bank Building on West Main Street.

“When this opportunity came up it was great. It seemed to be a great fit,” said Mayor Deidre Petrosky.

On Monday city council approved a resolution allowing Mayor Petrosky to enter into a “Memorandum of Understanding” to acquire the current Farmers Bank Building and negotiate a sale price not to exceed $850,000.

“The city’s excited. You know, here’s a very large building that will need minimal renovations so it is going to save the city a ton of money,” said Petrosky.

A study found the city has outgrown its current facilities. Ideally, should the sale go through — the 17,000 square foot building not including the basement would bring all the city services to a central location.

“The intent is that we can hopefully move all of our services into one campus and have city hall, police and fire department all under one roof,” said Cortland Fire Chief David Rea.

For one Main Street business owner, the thought of having city hall, the police department and fire department move into this Farmers Bank building is exciting.

“If they do take this building over then we can bring Main Street back alive again and bring more businesses down here,” said Deaddales Comics owner, Ron Haines.

“Of course, we’ve got a lot more work to do ok this is just the first step,” said Petrosky.