BENTONVILLE -- The city will build a Public Works building so employees will be closer to the utilities and maintenance campus and give them more room to operate.
The Public Works and Parks and Recreation maintenance crews share space at 401 N.E. Moberly Lane on the east side of Memorial Park.
"They're all packed in there on top of each other," Mayor Bob McCaslin said. "It's at capacity with equipment and with people."
The new building will be built on 3.25 acres at 403 S.W. 24th St, which is about a quarter of a mile north of the utilities and maintenance campus.
The campus houses the Street, Electric and Water departments as well as the inventory warehouse, traffic sign and signal shop, a fueling station and a vehicle wash building. It sits on 37 acres on Southwest 28th Street near the southeast end of the municipal airport.
The City Council voted 7-1 Tuesday to buy the land from 2M Investments for $500,000. Bill Burckart, council member, was the only dissenting vote.
He questioned Mike Bender, Public Works director, on why his employees couldn't be moved to the utilities and maintenance campus.
The campus was built with excess space, and there are several acres still vacant, Burckart said.
"I just thought it'd be an opportunity to look at this and see if we could fit it in, take advantage of the space we have there," he said.
Bender walked through each open space and explained which departments had already spoken for different areas.
"If we put the public works maintenance in that campus -- which we looked at when building our overall campus -- then we're going to be moving this off-site, as well," Bender said.
There is $2 million in the 2019 budget for the new facility. Of that, $500,000 was earmarked to buy land, and $1.5 million is budgeted for construction, McCaslin said.
Burckart said he was aware of the money in the budget but thought the new building would be incorporated into the current campus.
The new building will be roughly 4,000 square feet of office space and include 10 vehicle bays, each 100 feet by 20 feet, Bender said.
"This project will allow both departments to operate more efficiently and better manage their equipment and personnel while allowing for growth," he wrote to the council in a memo.
It makes sense for the Parks and Recreation employees to remain at Memorial Park since there are so many park amenities there, McCaslin said, adding the Public Works employees "could really be anywhere else in the city."
NW News on 12/13/2018