Construction Progressing On Secondary Roads Building

Mills County’s new, $4.8 million secondary roads department building is on schedule to be completed in October.

The nearly 20,000 square-foot facility located on Railroad Avenue will house the department’s maintenance staff and shop and the administrative offices all under one roof. The building sits next door to and shares its maintenance yard with the current county engineer’s office. The future use of that building is still to be determined.

Mills County Engineer Cory Gaston said other county departments have been looking into moving into the building after it’s completed, but nothing has been confirmed.

Genesis Contractors, who also built the Glenwood Community School District Activities Complex, broke ground on the project last October.

When completed, the new building will feature a three-bay shop in addition to a wash bay as well as offices for the maintenance and the mechanic foreman, and Gaston and the secondary roads administrative staff and technicians. The department employs 28 maintenance staff and five office staff.

In addition to the advantages of having the entire department under one roof, the new building will also streamline day-to-day operations and communication, Gaston said.

“Currently, our maintenance staff have to come over to our office,” he said. “It’s not a far distance, but it just simplifies updates and work orders. It makes communicating with the maintenance staff and myself much easier.”

The county’s current secondary roads shop, located just to the northeast of the new building, was constructed in the 1960s and has a drooping block wall foundation and a leaky roof. Gaston said the new building modernizes the county’s ability to facilitate and maintain its equipment year round.

“This was definitely very needed to keep the mechanics and the equipment dry,” he said. “This gives us the ability to handle all of our equipment. This building is sized so that we can pull in even our longest tractor truck into the shop for maintenance or repair and we don’t have to have our mechanics service them on a concrete slab in the middle of winter.”

The county will, however, keep the building for large equipment and tire storage.

Gaston gives much of the credit for the building’s planning and its financing to former county engineer Kevin Mayberry. Mayberry retired last year and was replaced by Gaston.

Mayberry’s vision for a one-stop shop for the department and the cost-saving moves the department undertook over a period of several years to pay for it were introduced under his watch.

The county did not secure a bond for the project. The entire $4.8 million cost is covered by the secondary roads department’s coffers.

“My predecessor definitely deserves the credit for avoiding having to bond for this building,” Gaston said. “He was able to save up some funds over the years and use that to cash flow this project. I just have to carry this project across the finish line. He was able to get the majority of the design done before he retired. The final touches are on me but a lot of the credit goes to him.”

Gaston did say the project is actually $22,000 under budget currently after contract modifications.