Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By TOM STANKARD
Bessemer — Area residents and the Bessemer Planning Commission heard plans Wednesday from the Gogebic County Road Commission for the county's new maintenance garage.
About five years ago, Darren Pionk, road commission engineer-manager, said the commission looked “into their needs.” Pionk said the commission's three main county garages are all “outdated” and no longer meets their needs. In addition to the garage in Bessemer, the road commission has one in Marenisco and one in Watersmeet. Pionk said the commission picked to work on Bessemer's garage situation first because the project will “steer the commission in the right direction.”
“We have to make some plans and direction in future for us to have a facility to work out of,” he said.
Pionk said the new garage will be roughly 46,000 square feet and cost approximately $4.7 million. Pionk said the plans include a storage garage, a salt shed, a wash bay, four mechanic bays, offices for staff and part-storage areas. To meet city zoning regulations, Pionk said the facility will be 35-feet high. Pionk said the new garage will be located on the south side of U.S. 2 on the west side of Bessemer.
In the future, Pionk said the commission does not plan to expanded upon the garage in the future and will not store all their equipment at the new facility.
Concerning construction, Pionk said the plan is to build the facility during phase one and then build the salt shed during phase two. For the salt shed, Pionk said he's envisioning “a gable, barn-style structure with a dividing wall to have salt on one side and sand on the other.”
Pionk said he looked closely at driveway locations in order minimize the effects of the facility on nearby residents. Pionk said the commission and Barrientos Design and Consulting, the selected architecture firm, chose to locate the driveways so its centered between the neighboring houses.
To limit the visibility of the facility, Pionk said they are going to make berms to provide additional buffering for resident areas and then plant trees on top. He said the commission wants “bushy” trees that will distract the sight of the facility from the neighbor's property.” Pionk said he wants suggestions on the type of native trees to be planted.
John Turkal, Bessemer Planning Commission chairman, said the planning commission is going to request a watering system for the trees because they're going to be elevated 6-7 feet on top of the berm.
Regarding traffic flow, Pionk said the commission's work vehicles will be utilizing a route around the perimeter of the facility. He said there will also be a front parking area designed for customers, light parking and vendors.
“We want to eliminate as much work vehicle traffic in front as possible,” Pionk said.
Right now, Pionk said the commission only has two work bays and doesn't have any lifts, causing mechanics to “work on their backs to service the equipment.” Pionk said having four mechanic bays is what the road commission “really needs.”
Pionk said the trash receptacle location will be on the south side of the facility.
“The garbage truck will come in, grab the garbage, back up and leave in the same direction,” he said. Pionk said he's looking at installing a fence enclosure around the trash receptacle
To limit lighting glare off of the site, Pionk said light will be projected toward the building using perimeter light posts and lights shining down on the parking lot area. He said the light posts will be about 20-feet tall and will use LEDs. Pionk said the electricity feeding them will be underground.
After Pionk's presentation, Dave Osier, planning commission member, and area residents said lights will flash into their houses.
In response, Turkal said this meeting is the first of several meetings about the facility and the public's concerns will be heard.