KUGLER TWP- A new $8 million facility here is expected to combine operations from the St. Louis County Public Works garages in Tower and Embarrass into one centralized location. The new public works “campus” is set for a construction start late next year and is expected to be built just north of the intersection of Hwy. 135 and County Rd. 26 on county tax-forfeit property, pending environmental review.
“This location was chosen because it is at the geographic center of the road network that will be maintained from this new public works campus,” said James Foldesi, county public works director. “It will allow us to operate more efficiently and provide a higher level of service.”
According to Foldesi, the new facility will replace two existing public works stations that have reached the end of their useful life and no longer allow for parking of some of the larger equipment the county has purchased in recent years. “They also do not have modern wash equipment to keep our equipment clean and extend their service life, especially in the harsh salt environment,” said Foldesi.
Besides the savings from reducing the number of facilities, the new public works campus will be more energy efficient, according to Foldesi. “This will allow us to lower our carbon footprint from both a building and operations perspective and hopefully raise our level of service by being able to clear our roads faster and with fewer trips back to the shop to reload with salt and sand, Foldesi added. “In addition, today our buildings cannot accommodate all of our trucks with plows on, so every morning they need to take extra time to put them on before getting out on the road to plow. This down time will be eliminated with a modern building that allows us to park all of our vehicles inside, out of the weather and operationally ready.”
The new facility will also offer a more comfortable work environment for county staff. The Embarrass garage was built in 1936, noted Foldesi, and does not currently have an indoor bathroom for employees.
City of Tower
may benefit
The county isn’t the only entity that could see benefits from the new public works facility. City officials in Tower have been in discussions with the county for more than a year about acquiring the current county garage facility, located on Marina Dr., for city use. The city has long housed public works vehicles and equipment in a variety of old, unheated buildings scattered throughout town. Its tiny maintenance shop is attached to city hall. By acquiring the county facility, the city could house all of its equipment in one location and have plentiful space to handle its repairs as well.
The old county facility could also potentially provide a new home for the fire and ambulance services, although that might require refurbishing some of the existing buildings or building new. But the 31-acre county garage site would have sufficient developable property for that purpose.
Both of those services are currently located in a small hall attached to the city’s civic center, which has been chronically cramped since 2014 when a fire damaged the fire department’s adjacent storage garage.
“It’s something I’ve been pushing for quite a while,” said Tower Mayor Orlyn Kringstad, who noted that acquiring the county property would likely cost far less than trying to build new facilities. “As it sits, it would be walk-in ready for city maintenance,” said Kringstad. “And I’d like to get those dilapidated [public works] buildings off city property so it can be used for something else.”
County Commissioner Paul McDonald said the city’s acquisition of the old buildings would be on similar terms as the city of Cook’s purchase of county facilities after the construction of a new facility on County Rd. 115, just north of Cook. That would entail a purchase for the current appraised value or estimated market value by the county assessor.
The property’s EMV is currently set at $343,900, which would be a small fraction of the cost to build such facilities new.
McDonald said the new county facilty will provide a number of benefits to county residents and he said the added benefit to the city of Tower ensured that the project would be a “win-win” for the area.
Part of larger program
The construction of the new public works facility is part of a larger county program over the past decade to consolidate its public works and other agencies into fewer buildings in an effort to save operational expenses and provide more modern facilities for county workers. “The Kugler campus is part of a larger bonding package that will construct two other new campuses, in Culver Township and near the Whiteface Reservoir on County Rd. 16,” said Foldesi. “If the bids come in favorably, we also hope to replace a number of salt/sand domes and add brine systems to facilities around the county with a total project cost of $26 million.”
County officials hope to complete the bonding process for the projects in August or September.