NEW ALBANY — Pine View can no longer be called an elementary school.

The building has been transformed into a youth shelter and government office facility.

“When you walk through there now you no longer think you are walking around an elementary school,” said Larry Timperman, of Michell Timperman Ritz who was the lead architect on the project. “It has been transformed into a government facility.”

The job to transform the old school into a new youth shelter and county government complex is nearly complete. Workers are putting the final touches on the building and getting it ready so some offices can begin moving at the end of the month. There will be an open house at 10 a.m. Aug. 11. The youth shelter will move into its new section of the building, and out of the North Annex building along Grant Line Road, on Aug 13.

“Right now we’re just trying to get everything completed and finalized,” said Floyd County Planner Don Lopp. “We’re a lot closer to moving into the building than we were last year.”

Floyd County purchased Pine View at the end of the 2009-2010 school year when the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. closed four elementary schools for financial reasons. The county paid about $1.2 million for the building and it took another $1.2 million to renovate the facility.

The existing school office will be used for youth shelter personnel. The school’s cafetorium will be for recreation and special events. Three classrooms have been gutted and transformed into residential units. The youth shelter will be housed on the main level of the building.

Also on the main level will be the Floyd County Commissioners and Floyd County Council’s new meeting room which will seat 100 people. County offices moving to Pine View include the county commissioners, county planner, plan commission, soil and water, stormwater, emergency management and juvenile probation. There will also be a large training room for the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department.

The project was done on a bare bones budget, but nothing was left out of the plans. New sprinklers were not put in all parts of the building — which saved $180,000 — and the county road department employees did the landscapping and a lot of the painting, which was figured in to the budget. The entire building is now up to code and safe and secure for those who will be living and working there, Timperman said. He said Pine View was a well constructed building.

“We’ve done a lot of the work in-house. We have done a lot of the painting; the road department guys were OK about coming in and doing the work,” Lopp said. “We did a lot of the demolition work in house. The guys have met the challenge.”

Timperman said he has been impressed with the work ethic of the county employees.

“Some areas were not renovated but we put up new exit signs and county workers have done a lot of the painting. They also saved a lot of the old fixtures so if something breaks they will be able to fix it,” Timperman said. “They have been working very hard. It always worries me to include that sort of thing in a bid, but these guys are really making it look nice.”

Pine View was constructed in 1953 and renovated in 1977. Upton Pry, Inc. was the general contractor for the renovation work.

Once the youth shelter moves out of the North Annex next month, the only office left in that building will be solid waste, which will also be moving soon to a house off of U.S. 150. Discussion is already under way on what to do with that building.

However, as for Pine View, it is nearing the finish line and will soon be unveiled to the public.

“I think it’s a success story,” Lopp said. “We saved a building which was in very good shape and were able to use it for a new youth shelter and other needs. It doesn’t happen everyday. I look forward to seeing the end result.”