County officials discuss need for heated garages for county equipment

The county's Freeport shop has more garage space than most of the other county shops

If you park your car inside a heated garage, the car is easier to start on chilly mornings.  Now imagine you have to start a snow plow or road grader.

County Engineer Lee Bjerke says the recent cold spell has been "wreaking more than a little havoc" on the county's snow-clearing equipment.  On Friday, two of three bladers at one shop were out of commission.  "There were lots of places we didn't get to," Bjerke told county supervisors.

The frigid weather is hard on the county's equipment, says Bjerke, because "at any given time, half of our equipment is parked in the cold."  The county has heaters for the engines on the equipment, but that doesn't keep the transmission lines heated.  Bjerke says road crews try to rotate the equipment to keep some of it warm, but that's not a good solution.  Even having all equipment parked in a garage heated to over 32 degrees would be a big help, he says.

Bjerke says none of the county's 12 maintainers are parked in a space that's above freezing.  "It's something we're going to have to get after," he warned supervisors.  The supervisors asked Bjerke to come up with a long-range plan to increase heated garage space over the next several years.