ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- St. Joseph County held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday to celebrate the completion of its energy savings project.

The $10 million project has provided significant improvements at several facilities.

It has helped reduce energy use at the County-City Building, the old jail and several other county-owned buildings.

Energy consumption across the board was reduced by 31 percent.

“I think it’s good that we’re able to upgrade things because again, my objectives were to make things more efficient, upgrade our buildings, and improve our services to our citizens, and so by doing that we save money and then by saving the money we can upgrade our services to our citizens. So that’s what I’m really hoping to get done, to get taken care of,” County Commissioner Deborah Fleming said.

County officials estimate taxpayers will save about six hundred thousand dollars a year moving forward.