The vote has been cast and the Voter Registration and Election office will relocate to the Bi-Lo shopping center.

County Council voted on Wednesday to lease a storefront next to Premier Rental for the voter registration office.

The office is being moved as employees are evacuated from the basement of the Courthouse due to water infiltration and mold problems.

The move will take place in mid-November after the Town of Prosperity elections.

The cost for the move and to rent the space for the rest of the year will be $35,000. The cost to rent the building for a year will be around $35,000.

The building, zoning and planning offices have moved from the basement of the Courthouse to the Clemson Extension Building on Martin Street.

Currently, county leaders are looking for a new home for the Clemson Extension agents.

The Assessor’s Office, which is on the first floor of the Courthouse, will move into the Clemson Extension Building after it is renovated and after the department completes the county’s property reassessment.

The council passed its first vote to spend $644,000 to renovate the Clemson Extension Building and $296,000 to repair the water problems at the Courthouse.

Most of the money will come from unspent funds from a 2007 general revenue bond or loan.

In other business discussed by County Council:

• Council also gave first reading to pull $55,658 from the county’s contingency fund, or savings, to make up a shortfall in state-shared revenue.

• Council voted to pull $5,000 from savings to help support the Small Business Development Center.

The center has assisted 25 clients through counseling since March, has had four new businesses start up and is helping two new businesses that are expected to open in December, according to SBDC board member Mike Davenport.

So far, the center has fostered $4.8 million in pending new business development.

• The council voted to allocate $10,000 to the Chamber of Commerce to help reorganize the organization.

Plans are for the chamber to: better serve its members, start a new community calendar clearinghouse, support the penny sales tax referendum planning and presentation and to be “more than an eat, greet and meet organization,” according to Chamber Chairman Andy Morris.

Chamber board member John David Dawkins said the reinvented chamber will deal with issues such as housing, tourism, and commercial business recruitment during the refocus of its vision, but will not recruit industry.

• Council hired Elliot Davis to conduct internal auditing for the county. The duties will be to form internal controls and to have all of the county’s financial offices on the same programs.

• Council voted to continue to lease space on the Duke Net Communications tower in Little Mountain for emergency radio transmission at the cost of $2,400 a year.

• Council voted on items to be purchased with $75,000 in capital outlays for the seven county rescue squads.

• Council appointed Jimmy Coggins to the One Cent Sales Tax Commission and Christie Whitaker as an alternate.