LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Standing in the break room of Lafayette’s new $21.5 million Public Works Campus, street and sanitation Superintendent Dan Crowell said he was still in disbelief that the project had come to fruition.
Crowell said he’d given Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski grief for several years over the need for a campus like this, sprawling over 117,00 square feet across 11.27 acres at 3601 McCarty Lane. With the former home for Lafayette Sanitation, 260 S. Third St., in disrepair, Crowell said the new home for his department was overdue.
“The city got this land about 12 years ago, and when we got the new salt building put up that was a blessing in disguise,” Crowell said. “Our employees are so excited, they’re chomping at the bit to get out here, which we’ll be coming in here next week with all our equipment.”
The need for a Public Works Campus like this, which will serve as home for the street, sanitation and fleet maintenance departments, was something Roswarski said he recognized 21 years ago when he first took office.
“This building got pushed toward the end of the list a little bit, but there was a plan set in place decades ago to achieve those goals in an efficient way that was responsible to our taxpayers and to our employees and our citizens,” Roswarski said. “We worked out an arrangement with Caterpillar to buy this (land) at a very favorable price, because we knew that we wanted this to be someplace eventually that was more centrally located in the city.”
In anticipation of the city’s continued growth, Roswarski said the city officially bought the 15 acres to the left of the newly minted Public Works Campus along McCarty Lane last week.
Lafayette city attorney Jacque Chosnek said the acquisition, which closed on Friday, came as a land swap opportunity with the property’s former owner, Red Tail Properties, at a price tag of $636,500.
Chosnek said the owner agreed to sell the property along McCarty to the city in exchange for another 15 acres the city owned along the Hoosier Heartland Highway so that the business could relocate.
Although more planning is needed, Roswarski said one of the uses for that new property will be for the city’s brush and organic material collection. The city’s brush collection is currently stored at a leased space.
Another unveiling alongside the new Public Works Campus on Wednesday was the city’s new all-electric trash and recycling trucks. With help from a grant through the Volkswagen Settlement Allocation through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the two new trucks were purchased for $1.025 million.
Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski walks up to look at the new electric vehicle Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, during the ribbon cutting at the new Public Works Campus in Lafayette, Ind.
The EV trucks are a first for Indiana, Smith said, joining the likes of other large cities that use EV sanitation trucks, including Chicago, Madison, Wis., and De Moines, Iowa. Each truck can run for about 100 miles on a single charge and are charged overnight inside the Public Works Campus.
The new trucks came with several perks, general foreman Quinten Smith said. Not only are the trucks quieter in the neighborhoods they serve, but they’ll assist in employee retention.
“Some of these guys are over 50 years old, and they just can’t manually lift the toters like they use to,” Smith said. “Employee retention with all of this is going to be huge.”
Another perk for employees at the new Public Works Campus, Roswarski said, is the workout facility and extensive locker rooms.
“Those different amenities are important for our employees to have,” Roswarski said. “We do have great employees. We provide great services, and we want to continue to be able to hire and retain those types of people here.”
The new EV sanitation trucks will begin their routes the first week of February, Smith said, with letters to the neighborhoods they are marked to serve going out with more information in the coming weeks.
Standing in the currently empty 32,000-square-foot maintenance garage inside the Public Works Campus, Roswarski said seeing this project realized was important to him.
“We take a lot of pride in our trash and sanitation services, and people really appreciate those. This is going to allow us to do those things more efficiently,” Roswarski said. “When you think about the fact that we have over 1,000 pieces of equipment in the city that have a motor, it’s important to have a fleet facility like this to be able to work on all of those vehicles. Being able to work on things in a more efficient way like this is safer for our employees, too, and it makes a better working environment, which will help us all around.”
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal and Courier. She can be reached via email at jellison@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette celebrates $21.5 mil Public Works Campus, two EV trash trucks