Seat Pleasant requests bonds to repair Public Works Building

Published on: Friday, March 23, 2012

By Nicole Macon

Mold on the walls, a leaky roof, siding that has fallen off and lunch breaks taken in a repair bay that stores chemicals these are the conditions that employees of Seat Pleasants Public Works Building are met with every day.

Mayor Eugene Grant lead a delegation along with Seat Pleasant City Council President Kelly Porter and Public Works Director Johnny Thompson to Annapolis March 10 to request bond funding to improve working conditions for Public Works employees. The delegation attended two back-to-back bond hearings in the Maryland House of Delegates and in the state Senate.

This facility behind Seat Pleasants City Hall has had only minor repairs in its 42-year history to keep the building up to code using funds from state highway user fees and taxes from real estate assessments. With an 84-percent cut in state highway user fees and a 27-percent decline in real estate assessments, the city needs bond financing now more than ever in order to make any substantial improvements to the building.

You do the basic or minimum to make it up to code, but in order to get the building up to modern standards, we need bond funds, Grant said.

The Department of Public Works is requesting $500,000 in bond financing to remove such hazards as a leaky roof, mold growth, and old and inadequate installation, lights and pipes, as well as makeshift doors to the buildings three repair bays made from ply wood by the employees themselves.

The bond funds would also help modernize the building by adding an additional floor to create an office for the Public Works director as well as a rest area, a place for staff to eat their lunch, and an additional bathroom and showers for overnight workers to use. Grant said that during snowstorms workers would sleep in their vehicles parked in the repair bays when taking a rest from plowing snow off the streets.

Grant also wants to add an additional storage bay to store equipment and for workers to repair lawnmowers and change the tires of the vehicles used to haul trash and remove snow from the streets.

Since Public Works Director Johnny Thompson started his position four years ago, he had been pushing for upgrades. Since he started, the department has received a new street sweeper, a one ton pickup truck, a dump truck, and a versatile all-weather tractor, replacing equipment that was more than 10 years old.

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Seat Pleasant requests bonds to repair Public Works Building