BEACON – The new Beacon
public works building opened on Sunday complete with a salt barn as the
winter season approaches with its promise of snow.
City officials, Saturday, celebrated the opening of the 24,000 square
foot, $9 million building located off Matteawan Road.
The facility, which sits on eight acres that were once home to the Camp
Beacon women’s prison adjacent to the state’s Fishkill Correctional
Facility, boasts a number of new efficiency and environmentally friendly
features. The city purchased the land from the state for $1.
Salt barn large enough to hold full year supply
Vehicle repair bays
Previously, the city’s highway, parks, recycling and mechanics
departments were spread across two separate properties, creating a logistical
disaster when it came to acquiring materials, or performing maintenance
on city equipment. In addition, the old highway department facility, along
with the salt shed, was located at Fishkill Creek causing environmental
concerns.
Beacon Mayor Randy Casale said the city had been working on completing
this project since 1998, knowing that operating between two separate locations
was not only inefficient, but unfair to the workers and taxpayers.
“It was really inefficient because any time they needed to repair
a piece of equipment it took two people to go get it, bring it over to
the garage – a lot of down time. Now, we’re all in one facility,”
said Casale. “This facility is environmentally friendly; it’s
also energy efficient. So, by moving up to this new state-of-the-art,
we feel we’ll get more work production out of our workers and we
also will be reducing the carbon footprint; so, to us, it’s a win-win
and I just believe this will give our workers a safe, clean place to work
that they deserve for the quality of work that they give to our residents
in the City of Beacon,” he said.
The new facility features an indoor washing/fueling station, with a 3,000
gallon diesel capacity, multiple bays and diagnostic technology for vehicle
repairs, new offices, full video surveillance inside and out, a conference
room with a smart TV, three retention ponds, an oil/fuel collection reservoir
and an enclosed salt shed with a 2,000 ton capacity – enough to
store an entire winter’s worth of salt which used to pose an issue
at the old storage facility where only a few hundred tons could be stored
at a time.
Bitsy McGill, a city DPW mechanic, called the new operation a “mega
prize of having the shop that anybody would ever want for anything; for
storage, for working out of. You can’t compare it. It’s like
apples to oranges.”
McGill estimated that, compared to their former capabilities while working
between two facilities, their efficiency will likely double when they
become fully operational at the new facility next week.
