Close to six months following a devastating fire at the Laurium department of public works garage. The village has started working at the site of the new Department of Public Works garage.
That’s been the biggest struggle is trying to figure out how can you be as efficient as possible when all your equipment’s all over the various communities and businesses. the one thing that I realized is that our community really came together. And that’s not just Laurium. It’s the entire copper country who helped donate equipment right after the fire. The day after we got hit with a blizzard. So, to be able to pull off any kind of system the day after. I think it really shows how strong our village council is, our committees are, and our communities are as well. – Ian Lewis Village Manager, Village of Laurium
Laurium leaders shared at the start of September an excavator arrived to begin site preparation work before construction. The village anticipates the project to build a new DPW garage will wrap up in 2026 and become fully operational by next summer.
The side south of the road is going to be cold storage and the middle will be a heated storage bay for mechanics and other equipment that needs to be kept at a higher temperature and then the closest to the recreation will be the offices where we will be housing the recreation supervisor and all of the DPW employees will be in that area as well. – Ian Lewis Village Manager, Village of Laurium
Insurance settlements following the DPW fire will fully fund the 3.6-million-dollar project. Laurium was also able to use some of the settlement, as well as 165,000 dollars grant from the Financially Distressed Cities Villages and Townships program, toward purchasing equipment and tools for the department.
And we’re still looking at acquiring other equipment as we continue to realize what are we missing. Are there smaller things that we’re just not thinking of now? For the building, we did get approximately 3.6 million, a little bit over from insurance proceeds. And we are now fully settled with the insurance company. So that’s exciting news for our community. Zero dollars from taxpayer money is going towards this project. – Ian Lewis Village Manager, Village of Laurium
When completed the new facility will measure 14,500 square feet. Laurium will work with Moyle construction through the fall and winter on foundation and supports for the structure, with work ramping up in the spring.
We’re hoping to have uh stuff up so that they can work on walls and other aspects of the project throughout winter. This is going to be taking place until the very end. Moyle is going to be working throughout the winter on this project. – Ian Lewis Village Manager, Village of Laurium
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