NORWICH – “Amazed” and “shocked” were the two words used by Chenango County’s new buildings and grounds superintendent when she inspected a core sample of roof taken from the Chenango County Office Building Tuesday.

The four-inch plug was saturated down to the roof’s metal decking. Workers had been called in to patch small leaks that were detected in the court system’s wing of the 1960s era building. Upon further inspection of the area, Superintendent Julie Gates said she gave the go-ahead to core out a sample.

“The whole core is wet. There’s nowhere for the water to go. It was starting to bubble,” she said. “I was a little shocked to see the water.”

Members of the Agriculture, Building and Grounds Committee quickly began calculating the price per square foot for roofing (the roof is about 15,000 square feet), the materials and labor needed.