Niagara County considers new public works facility again

LOCKPORT Niagara County leaders are again considering a new Public Works Department facility, but this time it could be significantly scaled back from the failed plan of six years ago.

It would still be built on Junction Road in Cambria, where the county bought 60 acres of land for the project for $180,000 in 2008.

However, the County Legislature called a halt to planning when it received a $42 million cost estimate for the new complex, which was to include the Public Works offices, a highway equipment garage and extras such as space to store the countys voting machines.

This time, the project may include only a highway garage to replace the aging building on South Niagara Street in Lockport, according to Richard W. Eakin, deputy public works commissioner for buildings and grounds.

The Legislature is to vote Tuesday on paying the Wendel engineering firm of Amherst $18,500 to come up with a floor plan and exterior renderings of the building.

Its my understanding were going to be supplied with more alternatives than we were before, said Majority Leader Richard E. Updegrove, R-Lockport.

He suggested a possible hybrid facility to store the countys trucks with the possibility of future additions.

The resolution on Tuesdays agenda speaks of determining what departments should be identified to be included in a Phase I construction.

No cost estimate for the eventual construction has been determined, Eakin said.

Referring to the 2008 stop order, Updegrove said. A lot of things have changed since then, but the deterioration of the building Public Works is housed in has not changed.

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Niagara County considers new public works facility again