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By VICKI URBANIK Porter County highway officials didn’t just show off the spanking clean and new north district County Highway Garage at an open house Sunday. Perhaps more telling, they got to show off the existing highway garage that serves the northern portion of the county. Located across the road on C.R. 200E is the facility that’s been in use for more than 50 years by county highway workers. Its small office is cramped and gritty. The bathroom is even more unappealing, complete with a hole in the ceiling. Insulation is falling from the ceiling in one area of the garage and in another, water is pooling on the ground because of a leak in the roof. In another area, there are cracks in the walls, making the unheated building even colder in the winter. On some winter days, “we questioned if we would even get started,” said Highway Supervisor Al Hoagland, referring to the length of time it took to get the trucks running. About 70 people attended the Sunday afternoon open house held at the new garage, a $1.2 million facility paid for with county income tax funds. The new garage will far better protect the county’s trucks and equipment, Hoagland said, since it will provide ample space for inside storage, which will not only protect the materials but will also improve the response time in the north end for plowing and salting the roads. The new building measures 80 by 180 feet in the garage portion, with a 20 by 40 foot office area, along with a breakroom and restroom. The old garage across the road will be torn down and the facility will be used just for storage of stone, slag, salt and other materials. The salt dome will stay. The highway department crew will move into the new building in a few weeks. The north district garage, which provides road and plowing work for portions of the county north of C.R. 600N, is currently staffed by nine employees, but that number will grow to 15 with the new facility, Hoagland said. North Porter County Commissioner John Evans, who has spearheaded construction of the new garage, said he’s pleased that the facility will be in use for this winter. Like others, he remarked on the stark difference between the old and the new. “We went from 1940s to the 2008,” he said.
Posted 11/3/2008
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