NORWICH – Despite two years of renovations and office switches to accommodate the New York’s Sixth Judicial District Court, administrators say more space in the Chenango County Office Building is needed to handle what they say is a “staggering” number of cases in the county, family and surrogate courts.

Last year, there were nearly 4,500 family court matters decided, 3,706 juvenile delinquent probation cases, 145 criminal cases and 619 circuit court cases. The number of juvenile delinquent cases jumped one third from 2008 to 2011.

“I’ve got to tell you, the community uses the court system here. If you look at the numbers, they are staggering,” said Hon. Robert C. Mulvey, administrative judge of the Sixth Judicial District.

Judge Mulvey and his staff asked a committee of county lawmakers Tuesday for a timeline and commitment for granting additional square footage for courtroom space, meeting rooms and lawyers’ and judges’ chambers. They said they would check back with the county in about three months to gauge progress.

“We need additional courtroom space to schedule more cases and move cases along. It will benefit people in Chenango County to have cases heard a little quicker than they have in the past,” he said.

The representatives delivered a formal draft floor plan and a space analysis to county officials in August of 2008. Since then, buildings and grounds workers have supervised the rehabilitation of the former Sheriff’s Office and Jail into new offices for the social services department, as well as moved heavy metal walls and made other renovations on the third floor of the 1960s-era building to accommodate the courts. Court district space has increased from 4,394 to approximately 7,000 square feet.

But it’s not enough, according to state guidelines. Counties have been required to provide office space for the courts since the creation of the unified court system in 1977. In Chenango County, the magic number is 12,100 square feet of space, which is just about what’s available on the third floor. The concern is where to put the District Attorney’s office and Probation Departments, both of which share the third floor.