By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
When Wood County Engineer John Musteric was asked for his opinion on the $40 million estimate for a new highway garage facility, he didn’t mince words.
“I think that’s a waste of money,” Musteric said to the Wood County Commissioners on Thursday. “We do not need to go with a Taj Mahal.”
The county commissioners first began talking about moving the county engineer’s office and highway garage in 2017, when the estimated price tag was $27 million. Now, the post-COVID estimate from Kleinfelder is close to $40 million.
“That’s ridiculous. This has really gone out of whack,” Musteric said.
The existing county garage and salt storage structure location at 600 E. Poe Road in Bowling Green has outgrown its space, and the aging buildings need a great deal of maintenance, Musteric said.
When constructed more than 60 years ago, the county highway garage was on a remote edge of Bowling Green. But over the decades, the open space around the highway garage has been built up with apartments, businesses and the university – leaving no land at the current site for expansion.
The current site does not have enough space to keep expensive equipment under roof. Ideally, equipment like dump trucks, graders and plows – costing $85,000 to $200,000 – could be housed out of the weather, Musteric said.
The project was awarded $1 million by the state in 2024, for an engineering study to look at the needs of the county garage and determine the best site for a new facility.
The county has two large sections of land left at its East Gypsy Lane Complex. One is on the south side of the road, located between Interstate 75 and the Wood County Health Department. The other is north of East Gypsy Lane Road, north of the Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities property.
Musteric favors a proposal that would move the highway garage and salt storage – as well as the county engineer’s office from the county courthouse complex.
But the price tag needs to be lower, he said.
Musteric said he would ask Kleinfelder to present a proposal closer to $20 million – and the commissioners agreed. Instead of a brick and mortar office building, he said a pole barn structure would do just fine.
The East Gypsy Lane Road locations would offer more acreage and easier access to U.S. 6 and rural roads that the county engineer’s office maintains. The complex there already has a fuel facility.
The move would also allow the county to sell the land currently used for the highway garage – which should be desirable property on the northeast side of BGSU. Both Bowling Green State University and the City of Bowling Green have reportedly expressed some interest in the acreage on East Poe Road.
