Local leaders and executives from the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens broke ground Wednesday on a new administration building next to the organization's main buildings on South Park Avenue in Buffalo. The new structure will provide space for educational programs and better accommodations for office workers who currently work in a garage.

"We've been living in the garage for a long long time and that's not a complaint at all. It's very confining at this point as the society grows," explains James Tilley, the Botanical Gardens Interim Executive Director.

The Botanical Gardens is able to expand thanks in part to a five-year funding contract with Erie County, but this is the last year of that deal. "We paid the monies that were due and we've lived up to our end of the contract and it was always intended after that time operationally the Botanical Gardens would be on their own," says Erie County Executive Chris Collins (R-Clarence).

Although he does not support further county help for the gardens operational costs Collins did take part in Wednesday's ground-breaking ceremony because he says he still sees the Botanical Gardens playing an important role in the region's future. "Cultural tourism being a major economic driver for our future it is a proper use to some extent of public money to help the private sector come forward with their funding," says Collins.

Tilley says the Botanical Gardens is not giving up hope that the County will continue to help with the Gardens' operational budget. He says they're still talking with the county executive and legislature about funding for next year.