Helper City was recently awarded a CIB grant that will help develop a new Public Works facility. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Mayor Lenise Peterman to talk about what happens now with the new grant money.

“We submitted an application and the board tentatively approved it this past summer. However, their funding meeting takes place at the capital, so we were present yesterday, and had the official word that the project was funded. So we will be looking to 2024 to build new Public Works garages to make them more efficient, effective and functional,” stated Mayor Peterman. This facility has been a cinder block structure for many, many years and to cool it in the summer is difficult, as is heating it during the winter months can also be problematic.

The construction will blend in well with the existing structures so residents should be very pleased with the look. “We’re actually going to blend the facade so you’re not going to see a gigantic metal structure. But it will have a brick façade in tune with the old City Hall building, with kind of matching windows on the garage doors, we’re trying to figure that out now. But it should enhance our Main Street, not detract, and give them a safe, clean, better, working environment than the cinder block garages that they’ve been in for the past 60-70 years,” said Mayor Peterman. She also feels that this upgrade will offer a better way to safeguard city property by offering more storage and parking areas.

Residents can expect construction to begin as early as Spring 2024.  “So we have finalized our drawings, we have performed our survey work, so we’ll probably break ground in the Spring. We’ll obviously have to plan for storage of current equipment, and other things to demolish those buildings, and level it out. We’ll want to make sure we’re taking care of power because the festival utilizes power from that building so we’re going to make sure we’re thinking ahead and including everything we need to do as we go through the re-build,” explained Mayor Peterman. The city feels that it will see a strong return in a lot of different ways with this upgrade.

To learn more about Helper City please visit their website at https://www.helpercity.net/