WESTBROOK – The city has authorized $300,000 to put together a plan to renovate the current home of the Department of Public Services, as well as adding on to the existing building at 371 Saco St.

On Monday, the City Council approved spending $299,600 to hire Westbrook-based engineering firm Sebago Technics to create a full-fledged design for the new department headquarters, which would be located on the same site. The money will come from this year’s capital improvement bond money, according to the Department Director Tom Eldridge.

The department’s home, while structurally sound and perfectly safe to work in, is too small for the city’s growing needs, Eldridge said.

“What we’ve had, we’ve made the best of,” he said. “But what we have is inadequate for our needs.”

On Tuesday, the department was at work in the building, doing maintenance on the city’s massive snowplow trucks in the building’s main garage bays. Built in 1969, the building was originally little more than corrugated steel wrapped around a frame, Eldridge said, not unlike a very large Quonset hut.

Since then, there have been some improvements, including enclosed office space for some of the department’s employees, but space remains a problem. A large open area in the rear of the building was supposed to be for storage of equipment. Instead, Eldridge said, some of the department’s vehicles, including a street sweeper, are garaged there.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the exact nature of the new, finished complex won’t be clear until Sebago Technics finishes the plan, but he said he thinks the original building will not be demolished.

“That building will be partially reused,” he said.

Bryant said the hiring of the company to do the plans represents Phase 2 of the project. Phase 1 involved assessing just what the department wanted to have, and what sites around the city might best suit those needs. In the end, Bryant said, the department’s current site is large enough. It just doesn’t have the buildings the department needs.

Eldridge said the site was also ideal because it had all the water, sewer, gas and electrical lines necessary, as opposed to having to build those lines on an entirely new site.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure already in place here,” he said.

Eldridge said the new structure, whatever form it takes, would ideally have, in addition to repair bays and office space for the department’s employees, proper structures for working on other city vehicles, such as the city’s fleet of school buses.

Eldridge pointed to where the school buses were parked out in the open, and a tiny garage barely large enough to hold one of them.

“That’s the only repair bay they have,” he said.

The new setup, Eldridge said, would likely have more space for bus repair and maintenance. In addition, he said, there needs to be some cover for the buses against the elements.

Eldridge said he’d also like to see vehicles and mechanics for the city’s sewer and public safety departments housed at the site. Right now, both departments keep mechanics and maintenance equipment in old fire barns at two other locations in town. Even his department, Eldridge said, has to store some equipment in the city cemetery for lack of space.

Eldridge said he hopes to see the finished plans by November or December.

Director of Public Services Tom Eldridge stands in front of the department’s aging building at 371 Saco St. The building is safe and strong, he said, but too small for the department’s needs. (Staff photo by Sean Murphy)