The Washington County Board of Supervisors Tuesday declined an offer from Federation Bank to sell the downtown bank building to the county.

The building’s top three floors are currently leased by the county’s Public Health department, an arrangement that goes back more than a decade. A new lease was recently approved.

The county and the bank have been in discussions about the property for more than a year, following the bank’s announcement to build a new facility a few blocks west in Washington. The asking price for the five-story building was $1.6 million. During discussions, the bank subsequently offered the county a 10-year lease and purchase option that would permit remodeling off the facilities, within some limits.

Tuesday, the board, noting that Public Health may have to find other facilities within a few years, cited the current county bond indebtedness to update communications equipment and to build a new communications center as commanding priority.

In the last few months, the county held closed sessions to consider the offer and all options, especially if the bank building would meet the needs of all county departments in the courthouse and elsewhere.

Earlier in the meeting, the supervisors approved vacating and closing a portion of 240th Street which has not had full public access for 25 years. The latter is because the bridge over Clemons Creek was closed in 1995; officials removed it from the county’s inventory in 2015.

Vacating was recommended by County Engineer Jacob Thorius who previously met with the landowners regarding a stretch of the road approximately 1,000 feet west of the bridge. The vacated area will be transferred to the owners on the original quit claim deed for no payment; the change is deemed in the public interest.

In a related resolution, the board approved a request from landowners to reclassify the road from the northwest corner of Parcel A, then east along the centerline of 240th Street to the northeast corner of Parcel A, all in section 15, to an Area Service C road.