Council OKs New $2.5M DPW Building

Council OKs New $2.5M DPW Building
Engineering, Public Works departments to be combined

FAST FACTS
New, $2.5 million building to be built
DPW and Engineering to be combined
Some water duties to be returned to city instead of contracted out

Katie Landeck
News Staff Writer

GARDNER  The City Council unanimously approved plans to combine the Depart­ment of Public Works and the city engineering office, approving $2.5 million to build a new facility.

“I think it would be a great benefit to the city,” said Councillor Patrick Gerry.

As the city plans for the end of a 20-year contract with United Water in 2018, officials are making preparations to take back control of the distribution and collection systems. Operation and maintenance of the city’s water and sewer systems – including the wastewater treatment facility; repairs of water and sewer main breaks; the Crystal Lake Water Treatment Facility; and sewer pump stations – will continue to be left to a third party contractor.

To handle this additional work, department heads are saying some changes will need to be made.

“I can’t handle this by myself and engineering couldn’t handle it by themselves,” said DPW Director Dane Arnold. “In my opinion, to be under one roof would be more efficient.”

The plans call for two buildings — a cold storage building to house DPW equipment, such as pickup trucks and dump trucks currently weathering outside, and a 6,400-square-foot office building.

The facilities are to be build on top of the old Little League field, Atter Field, off Manca Drive and behind the existing municipal garage.

The youth leagues have stopped using the field, in favor of the new youth field on Mechanic Street.

“The proposed office building will also provide one-stop shopping for residents who have a project to review by the engineering and Department of Public Works,” Mr. Arnold wrote in his proposal. “The utility billing will be in the same building as the director making it easier to answer questions and make an appeal.”

He also said it will make sure the phone lines are always covered, reduce paperwork, reduce storage, making collaborating more seamless and free up some space at City Hall.

At least one part of the engineering office is likely to stay behind at City Hall. The GIS coordinator, who is critical to the work done by the Office of Planning and Development and the Assessor’s Office, will likely remain.

“GIS is integral to a lot of the city departments,” said City Engineer Robert Hankinson. “My proposal would be to keep GIS at City Hall.”

The cost of the new buildings would be split evenly between the city’s budget, the water enterprise fund and the sewer enterprise fund, and be paid with a 20-year loan. Officials speculated the interest rate would be 3.25 percent.

This project is independent of proposed upgrades to the Wastewater Treatment Facility and rate hikes associated with that $14 million project. The City Council approved the $14 million loan order in July.

The whole operation, including taking back services in 2018, has received strong support from Mayor Mark Hawke.

“We’ve been talking about this for 12 months now,” he said. “This is an example of some great work by the city engineer and DPW director looking forward.”

While taking back the services wasn’t originally projected to save the city money, officials are now saying it could. Bringing the services in-house will keep the costs the same, as opposed to contracting them out, which would likely lead to a price hike.

In addition, the change will make more equipment available to the DPW — which could mean more plows on the road during winter storms — and it should make it easier for residents to process claims.

“It’s been a good contract,” said Mr. Hawke. “It’s served us well, but it’s prudent to bring it in-house now.”