Dec. 2022 | Vol. 22 Iss. 12
FREE
REBUILDING PUBLIC WORKS FACILITIES AIMS TO SAVE CRITICAL TIME AND MONEY By Sarah Morton Taggart | s.taggart@mycityjournals.com
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very minute counts when roads are covered with ice and snow. But outdated facilities delay the deployment of Sandy’s snow plow fleet. In January 2017, a four-alarm fire burned down more than half of the Sandy City Public Works building at 8775 S. 700 West. Even before the fire, the building was falling apart. The facility was built in the late 1970s, when the population of Sandy was around 40,000. Sandy now has more than 95,000 residents, which means more fire engines and police vehicles to protect residents and property, more parks to mow, and more roads to plow. Before a snow plow can begin to clear streets, it must be warmed and filled with ice-melting materials. “If they’re sitting outside and we put the salt or sand on the truck, it freezes and clumps and can’t get out through the spreading machine,” said Shane Pace, Sandy’s chief administrative officer. “So these vehicles have to be indoors.” During the winter, there is room to store 12 snow plows—half of the fleet—indoors. When needed, the large vehicles are slowly maneuvered out of the garage one by one, then the rest of the plows are driven inside and prepared.
“The drivers lose time loading and unloading the barn,” said Michael Gladbach, director of Sandy City Public Works. “If we had the fleet facility built out, the guys could just come in and drive away. They would all be out on the road an hour earlier.” Gladbach had been on the job for just four weeks when the fire happened. “I got the call at two in the morning,” Gladbach said. “There was an electrical fire in a dump truck. We lost half the fleet.” New administration offices were completed in May 2019. Displayed in the lobby like art is a large chunk of melted metal recovered from the dump truck that ignited the blaze six years ago. The clean, light-filled rooms are a stark contrast to the remaining buildings where critical work takes place. Smoke-stained insulation is still visible in Continued page 4 The Sandy City Public Works maintenance facility, where city-owned vehicles are repaired, is itself in disrepair. (Sarah Morton Taggart/City Journals)
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