Mesabi Daily News
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Virginia, MN — Work on a new $1.63 million St. Louis County motor pool building in downtown Virginia was started Thursday, with the expectation of 15 to 18 construction jobs to go with it.
Officials gathered at the corner of Fourth Avenue South and Second Street South to mark the event.
Some of the positives for the new building, slated for next spring, include:
• Efficiencies for county employees needing a county vehicle, going near by downtown for it, instead of driving about three miles in their own vehicle out to the county garage on Highway 135, where the motor pool is located now. The new building will save time and expense.
• The new motor pool’s central location will be convenient to county employees, who work in the Virginia Courthouse a block away; in the new Courthouse Addition, across the street; and in the county-owned Northland Office Center on First Street South.
• The downtown motor pool will be more convenient for sheriff’s vehicles needing maintenance.
• The building will have a white roof, more insulation and a solar wall for better energy use.
• When the motor pool is relocated and renovation of the old building at the Highway 135 garage is completed, it will be re-used by the northern St. Louis County Rescue Squad for vehicles and operations in the area. The squad has had no dedicated building of its own in the northern part for years.
Commissioner Keith Nelson of Fayal Township, whose district includes the Quad Cities, has said in the past that an overall goal for the county is to relocate its employees in buildings it owns for cost and safety efficiencies, rather than paying rent, he said.