DOUGLASS (Mont.) >> After years of talk, the township supervisors have decided to start the ball rolling on replacing the highway garage.
“It’s deplorable,” Supervisor Anthony Kuklinski said of the building on Municipal Drive. “If a pig walked in there, he would jump out the window.”
Kuklinski said he was moved to act on the matter as the result of the constant questions asked by Alex Brumwell of Middle Creek Road, who attends every meeting.
“This is your moment Alex,” Kuklinski said at the Feb. 2 meeting.
“I’m pleased something is going to be done about,” said Brumwell.
“It’s something we’re going expedite,” Kuklinski said.
Supervisors’ Chairman John Stasik and Supervisor Fred Ziegler agreed that it is time to act on the matter.
With a unanimous vote, the board authorized the township staff to begin taking steps necessary to move ahead, including cost estimates, engineering studies and an environmental assessment of the impact of the project.
“This is 20 years to late,” said Ziegler. “That’s a death trap down there. It’s disgusting.”
Stasik said that often enough, highway crews spend a few hours sleeping in the building during snowstorms when they need a break from clearing the roads.
“And sometimes you wake up with a rat on your leg,” said Ziegler.
“It’s important that the employees have proper facilities,” Stasik said.
“The garage is certainly outdated,” Township Manager Peter Hiryak said, adding he thinks the original structure may date back to 1938.
“And additions to put onto it over the years with no apparent rhyme or reason,” he said.
The decision will increase to three the number of western Montgomery County municipalities involved in updating their public works facility.
In July, Limerick broke ground on a new $2 million public works facility.
And in December, Pottstown Borough Council awarded bids for a new $4 million public works facility on Rice Street to replace a Beech Street facility which may well be as old as the one Douglass intends to replace.