New City facilities department outlines maintenance, generator and school‑support work
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Summary
Director Roth described the newly merged facilities operation, work on City Hall and schools, generator upkeep, a new maintenance facility and the upcoming MaintainX asset system that will track equipment and preventive maintenance.
Director Roth (Facilities) told the City Council on April 7 that the newly formed Facilities Department—merged in the past year to combine municipal and school facilities support—has been handling a heavy workload and implementing several projects to improve maintenance and resilience.
Roth said the department moved into a combined structure in September and that the schools cover 60% of the director and deputy director positions; custodial and maintenance staff remain paid through school budgets while Facilities provides supervision and technical support. He said the consolidation allows more centralized purchasing and oversight of utilities and equipment.
The nut graf: Roth outlined completed and planned work including City Hall clock tower repairs, conversion of an old firearms range into a fitness and training area after lead abatement, construction of a new maintenance bay for Parks & Rec, LED lighting upgrades at school buildings, and a new 30x60 facilities building at the middle school for inventory and equipment storage. The department has added a second custodian and a deputy director since the reorganization.
Roth emphasized resilience investments: the city now maintains roughly 10 generators across municipal facilities (with four more planned) and has begun remote monitoring; the middle school received a new 400 kW generator to keep critical systems running during outages. He also described plans to roll out MaintainX, a computerized maintenance management system that will track assets, preventive maintenance and spare‑parts inventory.
Councilors praised the transition and noted time savings on event setup, snow response at school sites and faster response times. Roth said the department is preparing spare‑parts inventories for new school buildings (noting hundreds of fixtures in two new buildings), training staff on geothermal and heat‑pump systems and pursuing energy‑efficiency projects.
Ending: Councilors called the facilities transition a success and urged continued attention to capital planning and preventive maintenance; Roth said the new maintenance building should break ground in late spring and that the department expects measurable savings over time.
