PennDOT celebrates opening of new facility in Greene County
Inside the garage of the new Greene County maintenance facility (Photos by Jon Andreassi)
PennDOT Greene County Maintenance Manager Dale Baird cuts the ribbon in front of the new facility. With him are, from left, PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll, PennDOT District 12 Executive Bill Kovach, and PennDOT Deputy Secretary for Administration Corey Pellington. (Photo by Jon Andreassi)
PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll speaks at Friday鈥檚 ribbon cutting. At left is PennDOT District 12 Executive Bill Kovach.
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Four years after fire destroyed the state Department of Transportation鈥檚 maintenance facility in Greene County, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday to celebrate the opening of its replacement, being billed as the most modern in the state.
The nearly 50,000-square-foot facility was rebuilt on the site of the previous building, at 129 Jefferson Road in Franklin Township. PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll spoke at Friday鈥檚 event, describing the new building as 鈥渟tate-of-the-art.鈥�
鈥淭his brand-new facility is the most modern maintenance facility among all 67 counties in Pennsylvania 鈥� right here in Greene County,鈥� Carroll said.
The fire occurred on Memorial Day, May 27, 2019. As it was a holiday, no one was at the building, and no one was injured.
The new structure, with a price tag of about $20 million, officially opened for business Friday.
The PennDOT maintenance facility in Greene County is responsible for maintaining a fleet of 28 snowplows.
Dale Baird, Greene County maintenance manager for PennDOT, was appointed to that job just a week before the fire. He called it 鈥渁n emotional day,鈥� and commended the PennDOT employees for their response.
鈥淏eing here for less than a week and getting that phone call 鈥� A lot of the folks I just met. They knew nothing about me, and I knew nothing about them, but we worked together as one team and made it through this. And this is what we have,鈥� Baird said.
The same night as the fire, Baird recalled saying to others, 鈥淲hat are we going to do about winter? Winter鈥檚 coming.鈥�
鈥淪o, that started the process of looking for a garage and a rented office space,鈥� Baird said.
Office employees went to work in the district office in Uniontown until PennDOT secured temporary space and a garage in Greene County.
Baird expressed gratitude to all of the local employees for making sure that operations continued even as they were scattered in different locations after the fire.
鈥淭o keep this group together, it鈥檚 up to them. They did it. It was all of us. From our office staff, to our mechanics, to our field personnel. We never missed a beat,鈥� Baird said.