Settling In To The Future
The move was only a few hundred feet down Railroad Avenue.
In terms of improvements, it was light years.
The Mills County Secondary Roads department moved into their state-of-the-art, $4.8 million building on Jan. 9. The nearly 20,000 square-foot facility located on Railroad Avenue sits next door to and shares a maintenance yard with the former secondary roads department building just down the road. The new building will house the department’s maintenance staff and shop as well as the administrative offices all under one roof.
The new building will feature a three-bay shop in addition to a wash bay, offices for the maintenance and the mechanic foreman and the secondary roads administrative staff and technicians. The department employs a staff of 35.
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, said Cory Gaston, Mills County Engineer.
“Our communication, our efficiency, our production – it will all be improved in the new building,” Gaston said. “It’s a great building and we’re real excited about having maintenance and administrative offices under one roof. It’s a state- of-the-art building. It’s a big improvement, especially in our shop area.”
The former secondary roads building, located just to the northeast of the new building, was constructed in the 1960s. For years the shop had a drooping block wall foundation and a leaky roof. Not to mention it did not have air conditioning and heat was supplied by an unreliable overhead heating system.
“It didn’t really do much when you had to open a door,” Gaston said.
The new building – with its updated HVAC system – greatly improves the county’s ability to facilitate and maintain its equipment year round.
The new building is only one, albeit a large part of a modernization trend Gaston aims to continue at secondary roads since coming into the position in May 2019.
The department is taking part in a year-long demonstration of GPS equipment on a handful of county roads trucks as part of a fleet management system that will help monitor snow removal and track rock placement on county roads. Gaston would be able to know where county trucks are and where they are needed in real time. If all goes well, the system could be in place on all county road trucks by the end of the year.
A digital work order system is also in the works to replace its hard copy system.
“These are just a few steps in that modernization,” Gaston said. “It’s a process we’re looking all the time to improve what we do.”
Mills County Supervisor Richard Crouch, who called the new building “an asset for the county and the community,” sees the secondary roads upgrades in farming metaphors.
“Farming has changed from plowing to planting. Everything has taken a big change,” Crouch said. “It’s the same way with the equipment they use nowadays. It’s no longer you just change the oil and it breaks you can fix it. Anymore, that fix comes with a computer now. You have to have that equipment inside so it can fixed. The modernization era is here.”
The plan was to move into the new facility before the end of the year but a few slight delays and some final work – some of which remains on-going – pushed that date to Jan. 8.
Gaston said with another concrete pour remaining on the drive-way and some work still remaining in the shop area, only Gaston and the administrative staff have moved into the new building. He anticipates the remaining work to be done by March.
So far, staff reviews have been glowing.
“Especially with our shop foreman,” Gaston said. “He has an office and it’s a major upgrade for them just getting heating and A.C. They’re excited to just get some everyday amenities in the shop.”
Gaston was quick to point to the contributions and role his predecessor, former Mills County Engineer Kevin Mayberry, played in getting the new building off the ground.
“We couldn’t have done this without Kevin,” he said. “He got the funding and the initial design done and left it to me to carry it across the finish line. I’d also like to thank the Board of Supervisors and Genesis Contracting.”
The former secondary roads building will continue to house the county’s planning and zoning department and economic development. Mills County Public Health will fill the remaining vacant office space. The shop area will be used for large equipment and tire storage.
Public health, which formerly leased office space on Glenwood Resource Center campus, began moving into the Railroad Avenue building last week.
Planning and Zoning and Mills County Economic Development will be on one side of the building and public health will occupy the former secondary roads offices.