WESTLOCK — The Town of Westlock celebrated international Public Works Week May 19-25 by officially opening its new public works shop and cold-storage facility.
Following several months of delays, that included supply-chain and weather-related issues, the $4.44-million project was finally completed in early 2024 and was in use by staff at the end of February.
Mayor Jon Kramer and several councillors joined town staff and guests on May 22 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the new multi-million dollar building.
The new shop, located at 11012 – 97th Avenue, was first announced in December 2021 as part of the municipality’s 2022 capital budget, and ground broke in August 2023.
Director of operations Robin Benoit said he and the town are excited to see the new public works shop officially opened.
“This has been a long time coming. The workspaces that we have now are far more functional and more efficient,” said Benoit. “Feb. 29 was our completion date and we moved in the next day. Facilities, parks and open spaces, operations, and roads and utilities are all operating from here.”
Benoit noted some of the work done at the new shop and pointed out several large pieces of equipment, vehicles, and other items will be stored there, along with a full-service mechanic’s bay and welding station.
“Anything that needs to be repaired … we manufacture some of our adaptors for the equipment,” explained Benoit.
There is some “settling in” that still needs to be completed, including paving and landscaping details, he added.
Benoit shared a few remarks prior to the ribbon cutting and noted this year’s theme for Public Works Week was “advancing quality of life for all.”
“It’s about public works professionals contributing to enhance the quality of life in communities they serve,” said Benoit.
A total of 18 employees are now working out of the new public works shop, including Benoit, and the five-bay facility has more general office space, a break room, a locker room that now includes two accessible washrooms and a wash area for employees to decontaminate themselves if required. It also has a training room that will benefit many.
“There’ll be continual training. We’re always looking at improving the services we deliver,” said Benoit. “We do debriefs for every season and learn from each season to the next (and) we have training sessions on winter maintenance, summer maintenance as well,” Benoit concluded.
