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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Joint facility planned for Cook area

Center would replace three existing buildings

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 8/3/16

COOK— A joint maintenance facility, similar to the one in Ely, could soon be in the works for the Cook area if plans by St. Louis County Public Works come to fruition.

The new facility, as …

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Joint facility planned for Cook area

Center would replace three existing buildings

Posted

COOK— A joint maintenance facility, similar to the one in Ely, could soon be in the works for the Cook area if plans by St. Louis County Public Works come to fruition.

The new facility, as currently envisioned, would shutter three existing county buildings, including public works garages in Cook and Linden Grove, and the county land department office on Hwy. 53, just north of Cook. The facility would also potentially house other partners, according to county public works director Jim Foldesi, including MnDOT highway workers currently stationed in Cook.

The facility could also include maintenance staff for the city of Cook, although the city has yet to decide whether it wants to partner on the project. “We’ve talked about it, but haven’t come to any decisions,” said Cook City Administrator Teresa Martinson.” We do need to build a new maintenance facility, but we need to understand the costs involved,” she said.

Foldesi outlined the proposal to the county board during a work session back in January. Two months ago, the board approved the hiring of architects LHB to begin initial design.

Foldesi noted that the existing public works garages in Cook and Linden Grove were old and inefficient. “The Linden Grove garage is actually a WPA-era building, with lots of miles on it,” he said. “It’s very energy inefficient and we don’t have enough room to house all of our equipment. A lot of our trucks are stored outside.”

Foldesi said a new, combined facility would be cheaper to operate and provide adequate space for equipment storage and indoor vehicle maintenance.

Most of the Linden Grove buildings would be razed under the plan, although the salt dome and a building to house a loader would remain at the site.

County officials are currently looking at purchasing the offices of Disability Specialists, which is looking to downsize, for the facility. “It’s ideally located,” said Foldesi. “It’s served well by the roads, and they don’t have any close private property owners. And it’s served by water and sewer, so we don’t have to bring that in. That’s huge.”

The building would be repurposed as office space for the various project partners and additional buildings and facilities would be added to the site, including a truck storage and maintenance building, fuel pumps, a new salt dome, and expanded outdoor storage for supplies like culverts. “We’d also need to add stormwater retention ponds to treat runoff from the additional impervious surfaces,” said Foldesi.

The county needs to acquire, either through purchase or a swap, a surrounding parcel owned by the city to make room for the additional buildings. “We’d like to have the city be a partner on this as well,” said Foldesi.

Construction set for 2018

Foldesi said he expects construction on the new facility should get underway in 2018. “Right now, we’re in the property acquisition phase, we will be in the initial design phase for the rest of 2016.” Assuming the acquisition works out, Foldesi said detailed design work would be completed in 2017, with construction to follow.

The current estimated price tag for the project is just under $15.2 million, most of which would be paid for through the county’s facility bonding program. Foldesi said bond payments for some past projects will be completed by 2018, which will open up the opportunity for the additional bonding.