By HOLLY GASKILL
Construction for a new Wells County Highway Department garage began last fall, but the project has been years in the making.
The current building was built in 1906 as a train maintenance facility for the interurban railroad. Following a tragic train accident in 1910, the railroad closed, and the county bought the building shortly after.
The county added a garage wing to the building in 1956 and an employee lounge in 1989. Otherwise, the building has been maintained in its original condition. Although it has remained operational for the department, it has long held its fair share of problems.
In short, everything has resulted from a “make-do” attitude.
For example, because there’s no storage area for many of the highway department’s materials, metal sheets and fuel containers are scattered throughout the facility. Since there’s no indoor area to wash vehicles, employees return from plowing snow to quickly wash corrosive salt off their trucks outside and the run-off water creates a frozen pond. To fit all the plows in the garage, each vehicle is parked back-to-back. If a vehicle in the back of the line breaks down, the rest are stuck.
Not only do these adaptations slow department functions, but they also pose a safety risk.
“It is a miracle we haven’t had a fatality in these conditions,” County Engineer Nate Rumschlag said, walking carefully past a jutted-out grate in one of the garages.
That said, Rumschlag said an employee was recently cut after tripping in that same spot and colliding with an exposed piece of metal on a truck.
Until the new garage was contracted, Highway Supervisor Shawn Bonar said some Highway Department staff were skeptical the project would come together, citing how previous discussions by former Wells County Engineer Larry Owen ended in 2010.
“They had heard for years — some for decades — that there was going to be a change, but it never came around,” Bonar said.
Last September, the contract price for the project was approved at $10.9 million.
The new building will include garages and storage areas for materials that consider the needed space for day-to-day functions. The property will include three different structures — a main heated building, non-heated vehicle storage, and salt and sand storage with space to mix the materials.
There will also be several additions for employees and administrative work. Notably, the new facility will also have a dedicated area for employees to change, store uniforms, take breaks, and hold training sessions. The new building will also include a small welcome area for visitors and appointments.
At the current facility, the staff has only a cubby space for their items and clothing, and the break room is also not large enough for everyone. It also routinely floods — all of the furniture, collected from donations, is trimmed with mud and dirt.
Rumschlag will also gain a proper climate-controlled area to store county records of roads, small structures and bridges, which need to be stored for several decades. Although Rumschlag was able to organize these records when he took office, he found some had acquired mold or had otherwise been damaged. Additionally, the file cabinet storage quickly overtook their coat closet into the majority of Rumschlag’s office.
With these improvements, Bonar said county residents can expect to see increased service quality and efficiency, in addition to increased safety for his staff.
That said, he noted that the county will also need to determine an equipment replacement plan. Bonar stated multiple vehicles are out of commission and multiple other pieces of equipment will soon reach the end of their useful service.
Bonar, who moved to Wells County from Fort Wayne in 2021, said the department has been very fortunate to have long-standing employees who have worked to make equipment and the current facility work for the county this long.
“They go above and beyond all the time,” Bonar said. “Everyone works together, and everyone works hard — that makes all the difference.”
Project manager Conor Jackson stated that everything is on track to meet the February 2024 contract date for completion.
As of Feb. 3, the salt storage building has been completed, and the steel frame of the cold storage building has been put in place. For the main highway garage building, slightly less than half of the foundation is complete, and the steel frame will be raised this month.
holly@news-banner.com
