Bartholomew County officials are considering building a new county highway garage on property east of Petersville.
The county has had its highway garage at State Street and Gladstone Avenue in Columbus for 66 years, but now is considering building a new facility on 11.25 acres on East 25th Street near the Clay Township Fire Department.
Although the Bartholomew County commissioners said they would ideally like to bond for $8 million to pay for the new highway garage, Bartholomew County Commissioner Chairman Larry Kleinhenz said every effort would be made to build the facility for substantially less money than that.
The city of Columbus is interested in purchasing the current garage at 2452 State St., said Kleinhenz, who talked about the garage plan at a Bartholomew County Council work session on Monday.
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The city is considering the property for several possible uses, including a bus terminal or a storage facility, Kleinhenz said.
But for the county highway department, the current garage is functionally obsolete in needs and equipment, according to an early 2017 structural assessment. Specific problems outlined in the evaluation issued by DMZ Indiana include:
A cracked concrete floor that shifts under heavy truck loads.
A need for a new roof.
Inability of trucks to pull into 40-foot-long service bays.
An electrical system now at capacity.
Inadequate storage.
Expensive equipment exposed to freezing temperatures, due to no exhaust system in the garage.
Inadequate room and height for necessary repair work.
While the Clay Township site was never part of the former Petersville landfill, it is owned by the Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District, Kleinhenz said. The land was purchased for $480,000 from the McNeely family in 1997 as a source of dirt for the landfill.
Consideration of a new garage location was mentioned last December after Taylor Bros. Construction President David Doup recommended moving the garage out of town, Commissioner Carl Lienhoop told the council.
Doup pointed out the current highway garage site has become smaller due to increased setbacks resulting from the State Street Corridor development, Lienhoop said.
In addition, the commissioners were made aware that any attempt to reconstruct the current garage while it is still operational “would be a real nightmare,” Lienhoop said.
By moving east of Petersville, the county also won’t feel pressured into spending money for aesthetic purposes as part of the State Street Corridor efforts, the commissioner said.
Upfront costs listed in a written plan about the garage project include about $150,000 to purchase the land, as well as $500,000 for design work.
In order to afford planned upgrades to the Bartholomew County Jail and some road improvements, the commissioners proposed issuing a bond to pay for the highway garage.
If a 20-year bond were obtained at 4.5-percent interest, the annual payment would be $615,000, the plan stated. However, if the county chose to pay back the bond in 15 years, the payment would climb to $715,000 a year.
The commissioners are proposing making payments from a county economic development income tax plan under their jurisdiction that currently generates roughly $1.4 million annually that has not already been earmarked for other projects.
The final decision on the facility and its financing rests with the seven-member council, not the three commissioners.
The county currently has nine years still left repaying bonds for the Bartholomew County Jail expansion in 2011.
If the council doesn’t approve bonding, construction would have to be done in three different phases, depending on what monies are available, that would continue well into the next decade, according to the plan presented to the council.
In addition, the commissioners would be limited to no more than $600,000 a year to maintain all other buildings and properties, the plan states.
If the council chooses to delay a bonding decision for five years, they should anticipate paying an additional $1 million due to anticipated higher construction costs, Kleinhenz said. And if interest rates go up, the facility will become even more expensive, he said.
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The Bartholomew County Council may discuss a proposal to construct a new county highway garage east of Petersville at its next meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The council meets in the fourth-floor chambers at the Bartholomew County Governmental Office Building, on the northwest corner of Third and Franklin streets.
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