Director Donna Owens announced today that the Ohio Department of Commerce will celebrate the recent opening of its new regional office in Batavia this Friday, January 9, 1998 at 11:00 a.m. The new office is located in the Clermont County Building Department's facility at 2275 Bauer Road, Suite 500 in Batavia.

Joining Director Owens during the grand opening will be Superintendent of Industrial Compliance Carol Drake, area office holders, Clermont County building officials, and customers of the new facility. Harold Classen, a senior project architect with a Cincinnati-based firm, will also be on hand to provide testimonial about the convenience that this new office's location offers southwest Ohio.

The Batavia office joins the other regional offices in Akron, Athens and Toledo that, primarily, serve Division of Industrial Compliance customers needing building plans reviews in jurisdictions covered by the Ohio Department of Commerce. This new office also accepts plans for any state university or state building and conducts plumbing plan reviews.

This new office, designed to serve southwestern Ohio's construction needs, is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Walk-in service for plans review are available from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. daily for smaller projects that can be reviewed and approved while customers wait.

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The Division of Industrial Compliance is part of the Ohio Department of Commerce. Other Commerce divisions enforce regulations regarding financial institutions, fire codes, real estate, securities, auctioneers, unclaimed funds, and private investigators, among others. The former Department of Liquor Control joined the Department on July 1, 1997 as the Division of Liquor Control. The department's internet address is www.com.state.oh.us.