Franklin County plans to purchase 41.3 acres to serve as a future site of its highway department’s maintenance facility.
The $450,000 purchase for land on Highway 50 between Beaufort Elementary School and the community of Beaufort will allow the county to consolidate its two current maintenance facilities, one located on Riverview Place in Union, the other at the intersection of Highways ZZ and C, northwest of Leslie, Presiding Commissioner Tim Brinker said. While commissioners unanimously approved the special sale contract at their Tuesday meeting, the property’s current owners, Great 8 Cinema owners Paul and Jo Ann Arand, still must agree to the contract.
“This will really help build efficiencies with the county’s highway department, that currently are typically separated just to the nature of the department, we’re split in half, west and east,” Brinker said. “I can’t stress how big this is for Franklin County.”
The county put an offer in on nearby land several months ago, but the sale did not go through, Second District Commissioner Dave Hinson said. “This is actually a little bit bigger piece of property,” he said.
The new facility will replace “40- and 50-year-old buildings,” Hinson added.
The consolidation of the highway department’s east and west districts will create a more “harmonious” situation with all employees and trucks reporting to the same location, county Highway Administrator Jim Grutsch said. “We won’t have duplication of crews, we won’t have nearly as much duplication of effort,” he said. “This would allow us to track and implement the workload quite a bit more efficiently.”
The new buildings will be more energy efficient, Grutsch added. “Right now we have buildings that do need quite a bit of work,” he said.
The county has been replacing water lines and dealing with other issues at the existing facilities, Grutsch said.
“It’s not the fault of the construction, it’s just the age of those two facilities,” he said. “I think this is a very good move for our department and all of our employees.”
One reason the county has had two locations for the highway department has been the need to get motor graders to repair unpaved roads more quickly. But Grutsch said fewer graders are being used because the county has paved more of the roads it owns.
“Now we can have equipment on trailers and move those much easier throughout the county,” he said.
Brinker said he did not yet have estimates on what it would cost to build the new highway department facility. He added that the county could sell the sites of the existing highway department facilities in the next couple years.
The land purchase agreement was not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. Brinker said the nature of the agreement made it “impossible and impractical” to provide 24 hours notice.
Also Tuesday, commissioners voted to purchase two Ford F-350 pickups for the highway department from Broadway Ford Truck Sales for up to $120,206. Brinker said the purchase was made through the St. Louis Ford dealership because it was done through the state Office of Administration.
“These trucks were originally ordered in 2022 — the Biden logistical debacle carried it over to this year,” Brinker added.
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