In February, City Manager Jim Wieprecht introduced the new seven million dollar Public Works building designed to replace multiple dilapidated buildings and house everything they need in one building. The proposal was met with frustration by Council members and the public questioning why such an expensive building was needed now.
Director of Public Works Kevin Smeak and Assistant Director of Public Works, Randy Meyers were present at the March Mayor and City Council meeting with a slideshow of pictures showing conditions of the six current buildings which included leaks, cramped spaces, and the overall ineffectiveness in protecting their equipment from vandalism and weather damage.
Of the six buildings, three of them were in poor enough condition that they should be demolished; The main shop, a concrete block building originally built in the 50’s, the Roberts Mill Park shop and the old police garage. The current machine shop as well as the other two buildings at Memorial Park would be saved for Parks and Recreation to use for equipment storage. Removing the three dilapidated buildings would also open up additional parking spaces and allow Parks and Recreation to add baseball batting tunnels to be used during inclement weather.
The new building will be built on a five acre parcel off Allendale Lane that already has water and sewer hookups. The building will sit along the southwest end of the parcel closest to the hookups to save on infrastructure cost. Tillman asked if the remainder of the parcel could be used for a solar panel field. Wieprecht replied that they would need to discuss it with CGI energy consultants, but it could work.
Solar panels are included in the plan with the hope that it will be a net zero project resulting in no cost to the electrical system. "It will most likely generate more electricity than it will use," said Smeak. Mayor Miller commented that the Governor’s Office grants look at solar panels as a positive for grant funding. Wieprecht said geothermal heating and cooling is also being considered.
Councilwoman Diane Foster has been an active participant in the search for grants for the new building. She stated at the March meeting that town staff are attempting to procure as much grant money as possible by automatically applying to all available grants where the building plans meets the grant requirements.
The new building is projected to include a designated chlorine storage unit, a wash bay for vehicle care, a mechanical room, a clerk’s office for file storage, two additional offices, an IT room for future backup for the entire city and a 40’ by 80’ salt bin. Employees will have a resting room to sleep or relax in when on long shifts, such as during snow storms, a breakroom, two bathrooms and a 40 person classroom useful for trainings.
Meyers explained that the state is pushing for brine to be used more than salt during winter weather storms in the future and this building would allow for storage of the brine tanks inside because direct sun deteriorates the material used to store the brine. "We may not see the requirement for brine for 10 years, but we want to be ready," he said.
Wieprecht concluded by saying the project has been on the Capital Improvement Plan for a number of years and with the degradation of the current buildings as well as vandalism to Public Works vehicles the time has come to do something.
