Laurium’s Village Council on Tuesday, discussed the status of the Department of Public Works after a Feb. 5 fire that destroyed the garage and DPW equipment. From left, John Galbraith, Jenn Jenich-Laplander, President John Sullivan, Trustee Krista Carlson, President Pro tempore Jeff Erickson an Wes Pietila. (Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette)

LAURIUM — During Tuesday’s Village Council meeting, trustees and meeting attendees were given an update on the status of the Department of Public Works since the department’s facilities burned two weeks ago, which destroyed most of the DPW vehicles inside.

Jeff Erickson, village president pro tempore and pro tempore and Streets/Equipment/Sanitation Committee member, maintained his sense of humor as he started his update.

“Well, we don’t have a building anymore, and we don’t have a lot of equipment,” he said with a chuckle.

Currently the DPW is housed in the old Peninsular Gas building, in Florida Location, which is owned by the North Houghton County Water and Sewer Authority. The facility is outside of the village limit. The NHCWSA loaned the village use of the building until they can come up with a permanent alternative.

“There is availability of this building long-term, for the next year or so,” Erickson said. “They do have a scheduled site cleanup there that was scheduled for this summer, but they can push it off if we need the building, which I think we’re going to need.”

Erickson said that as the building was not built as a public works garage, it has limitations. It will not accommodate heavy equipment, he said, but it will house smaller vehicles. It is, though, heated and has lighting.

“RC Mechanical pulled a miracle getting things up and running in a couple of days,” said Erickson. “We got heat, running water, flushing toilets. Bay Electric showed up with some temporary lights, and then we just had a general outpouring of people coming to help clean it up, so we have a functional building now.”

Erickson said the DPW is slowly piecing together some equipment, along with some tools, adding that some items were able to be salvaged from the burned building.

“But, we still have a lot of needs that we have to address,” he said. “We have nothing, basically, right now.”

A prioritized list is being drawn up of needed equipment, tools and also, a new building, including the best location for it, what size the DPW requires, and what portions of a new building need to be heated.

“Then, we get into equipment. We have a ton of questions to answer,” he said.

Knowing what the village had in its inventory, the question is was it the best equipment for the needs of the village.

The inventory of vehicles in the garage at the time of the fire included three loaders, two graders, two snow goes, a garbage truck, five dump trucks and a sander, not to mention all the tools in the maintenance section.

“Maybe we don’t need two graders,” Erickson said.

“Maybe we switch over to loaders with wing blades. So, there’s a lot of logistics that have to happen now.”

Erickson said there is an urgency in replacing equipment in order to return the borrowed equipment, as the village is paying rental rates on them.

The list of needed equipment includes a mid-sized loader for the village’s parking lot and its snow contracts.

Sweeper and sno-go attachments are also a need.

Currently, the DPW owns one two-wheel drive pickup truck that was given to the village by the NHCWSA, the only vehicle in the current inventory that is not borrowed or rented.