By Pat Brown
Contributing Writer
About 30 Montgomery County employees will be reporting to a new facility off Roanoke Road when a county construction project is finished in the summer of 2022.
The site should be a busy place. County officials say four structures and 5.1 acres will provide places for county departments to store lawn and landscaping equipment, parks and recreation vehicles and trailers, plus snow removal equipment. There will be a garage where mechanics will do auto repairs for all departments, including the Sheriff’s office fleet.
Priced at about $5 million, the project will bring together operations that are currently scattered across the county.
Since some essential equipment will be parked outside, a fence will surround the site.
The project was begun in February, but not until April when fires burned brush, trees and old building materials did it become obvious that change was underway.
The construction site sits behind the current county and school board office building (formerly the Reading sweater factory) and alongside Kiwanis Park, a ball field and playground area. The new facility is not expected to impact sports events or parking for games, county officials said.
Traffic to the new storage and repair site is expected to use Reading Road at its intersection with Roanoke Street. That road has been busy with dirt hauling trucks since early spring.
An acre of trees at the far end of the site had to be removed as did some trailers and a building foundation that had served previous owners who were in the construction business. Before digging started, Reading Road appeared to stop at the edge of a large, nearly empty field (now the construction site). It resumes atop a high hill at the rear edge of the property. Residents along the elevated portion of Reading Road, high above the site, have had a bird’s eye view of the project.
County Engineer Scott Woodrum said plans for a project of this type have been in the works for a dozen years.
On a cold, windy day in early April, workers used bulldozers, compactors and truck loaders to move a huge pile of dirt to the project’s center area to build it up. The dirt has to be layered, flattened and compacted before construction can begin. A retaining pond will hold runoff at the far end of the plot. The facility will tap into existing water and sewer systems in the neighborhood, said Woodrum.
G & H Construction, Inc., of Salem is building the project with Brent Hawes as their site superintendent. Hawes noted that rain had interfered with construction three days in one week during April, so he brought in his crew on a Saturday to make up some of the lost time.
Architects are Thompson & Litton of Radford.
The biggest building, 13,430 square feet, will be the county’s general services building, which will include a garage for vehicle repair and maintenance. Also under this roof will be an office and workshop for buildings and grounds, a lawns and landscaping office and repair area, a parks and recreation office and repair area, and a storage area for solid waste collection equipment.
The second largest structure, a three-sided shed of 7,000 square feet, will be used to garage seasonal equipment and keep it out of the rain. For example, snow plows might be protected there in the summer, and mowers might spend the winter under cover of the shed’s sloping roof.
A building for the county’s public service authority will be 4,025 square feet and will provide a headquarters for the Public Service Authority’s field crew and their equipment.
Salt necessary for winter road maintenance will be stored in a 900-square-foot building.
“We made a special effort to save a 15-foot row of evergreens,” Woodrum said, pointing to trees between the construction site and an apartment building that faces Chinquapin Road.
The facility’s entry way will be concrete, but gravel will be used in storage and parking areas.
“It’s important to have a place where we can service the needs of each county department,” Woodrum said
No administrative offices will be moved to the new site, he said. “County residents will still pay their water bills at the administration building.”
