St. Joseph County officials have found a new site in Granger to build a highway garage, after scrapping plans to build one last year on Anderson Road, under heavy opposition from neighbors.
The new county highway garage site is on Alexander Drive, in an industrially zoned area off Bittersweet Road, north of Anderson Road.
The county has reached an agreement with the seller to buy about five acres. They’ll formally approve the purchase at their meeting Monday.
County Commissioner President Carl Baxmeyer said they’ll start this year by installing gas pumps for county vehicles and a road salt barn. They hope to have a garage ready by the time the snow starts flying this fall.
"It feels good," Baxmeyer said. "It was exhaustive. There aren't a whole lot of sites that are available that are industrially zoned, in an area where we want to be located to serve the residents."
As he tried to do during the Anderson Road site controversy, Baxmeyer stressed that this will be a satellite garage, meaning plow and salt trucks will only be staged there when snow is forecast.
The deal means the county can fulfill an agreement it has with Juday Creek Estates residents to close and demolish the former highway garage on Cleveland Road by the end of this year. County vehicles still fuel there. The county has given the residents reverse osmosis systems because their wells are contaminated by salt from the garage.
