former-alliant-energy-building

The Greene County Secondary Roads Department is purchasing a new location that solves several current problems.

The Greene County Board of Supervisors approved at their regular meeting on Monday to accept an offer from Interstate Power and Light Company, the realtor for Alliant Energy, of $582,000 to purchase its former Alliant property on North Mulberry Street, next to Sparky’s One Stop gas station in Jefferson. County Engineer Wade Weiss told the Board when they sold the former Armory to the Greene County School District for $250,000, there wasn’t adequate space for their cold storage items.

He said those items have been stored at the Greene County Fairgrounds and another facility in Scranton. However, Weiss noted the Scranton facility is outdated, in bad shape and is small at 5,200 square feet. The new property is 2.19 acres with a 16,800 square foot building. The building was originally listed for close to $1 million but Weiss said Alliant Energy was a great partner with him and the price was reduced to $582,000.

Supervisor Chair John Muir said the new location solves lots of secondary roads’ issues, especially with cold storage items.

“So now I think those sorts of things will be stored here. I think the building out here, the Alliant building is designed for a lot of the uses of secondary roads. They’ll be able to pull vehicles in, it’s gated so we can have stuff stored there that’s safe and secure. The price that Alliant came up with and offered it to the county for, it was a nice price for the county to have to pay for a facility that’s turn key for us to use.”   

The funding to purchase the property is from the proceeds of the armory sale, additional funds from the state road use tax via COVID-19 relief money of over $350,000, and not hiring some positions within the secondary roads department after some employees retired. The Board voted 4-1, with Supervisor Tom Contner arguing that a new facility could be built on the vacant property near the main shop in Jefferson. 

Muir said the rest of the process will be handled by Weiss, as the Board has completed its steps in the project.