State funds help Bluffs consolidate

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Ever wonder what would happen during a major snowstorm if a city's snowplows couldn't move because of exposure to the elements?

Or equipment needed to cleanup from a tornado also was damaged by the storm?

Because of a lack of indoor space, Council Bluffs' fleet of city vehicles and large equipment must be parked outdoors, open to all kinds of Midwestern weather.

“With diesel (engines), you have to be careful how cold they get,” said Public Works Director Greg Reeder.

He and other dignitaries, including Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, announced plans Wednesday for a Public Works operational building with room — 37,000 square feet — to store all those vehicles and equipment.

Judge was on hand to announce that half of the project's $7.6 million cost is coming from the IJOBS stimulus package, the brainchild of Gov. Chet Culver.

“This is another step forward in Iowa's future,” she said of the project. “You can't sit back and wait for things to fix themselves. We have to chart our own course.”

City funds will pay the other half of the cost, Reeder said.

The building will be constructed on vacant ground just west of the city's newly opened fleet maintenance facility at 901 10th Ave.

It's part of the city's master plan to move all Public Works operations onto 10th Avenue in a campus-like environment stretching four blocks, Reeder said. The vacant ground has been unused for at least 40 years, he added.

“We took an old area and rebuilt it,” Mayor Tom Hanafan said of the master plan.

The building also will provide better efficiency by combining several divisions within the department, which are now scattered in three different locations, Reeder said.

The city's traffic, street and sewer divisions, numbering 65 employees, and their daily functions will be housed there, he said.

Culver's stimulus package, as its name suggests, was to create jobs to combat the impact of the recent recession, “the worst since the Great Depression,” Judge said. Approximately 165 construction jobs will be needed for this project, she said.

Five engineering design firms bid on the project, a higher number than normal, Reeder said.

“There's a strong demand for projects like this,” he said.

“The IJOBS program is unique in the country,” Mayor Hanafan said. “This state is moving in the right direction.”