Elyria breaks ground on new Public Works Complex

ELYRIA — What had been a dream for city employees for nearly 15 years came closer to reality on Thursday, as Elyria broke ground on its new Central Works Complex on Garden Street. The $20 million complex will have over 100,000 square feet between several buildings, and will house most of the city's non-emergency vehicles as well as several city departments. It will replace the nearby Central Maintenance Garage already on Garden Street, which is over 30 years old. "This project was a discussion, a dream, a vision, probably about 15 years ago, when we looked as a city to buy a building on Lowell Street, that, quite frankly, wasn't what we needed," Mayor Kevin Brubaker said. "In the middle of 2016, we looked at a project out here, and the cost was estimated to be $12 to $13 million, and at that time, that was not affordable and the dream and the vision kind of disappeared. But we are here today, and it's now a reality." Brubaker brought the idea back up again after he took office, and last year City Council approved the mayor to seek bids on the project. Elyria received 30 bids, and selected Rycon Construction of Cleveland to carry out the project. The project will cost $20.2 million and include a main building with roughly 90,000-square-feet of space. The complex will also include a three-sided garage to store the city's sanitation fleet and a 10,000-square-foot evidence storage building for the Elyria Police Department. Assistant Safety Service Director Joe Strohsack said that the new, larger facility would allow the city to store far more of its vehicles inside, which would save wear and tear on them. "In the current facility, we are at just 35,000 square feet for everything," Strohsack said. "Now, we are going to have over 100,000, so almost three times the size. In the past in the winter, we had guys scraping ice off their windshields before they could go out. Now, everything will be stored inside. … Our last sanitation truck cost close to $500,000. There are a lot of people that might not understand why we need this, but when you are spending that kind of money on equipment, you have to take care of it." The new facility will more comfortably hold the staff of the multiple departments that already work out of the central garage: Parks and Recreation, Sanitation, Streets, Forestry, Communications and the central maintenance team. "The (central maintenance garage) over there, when you turn off all the lights during the day, you have light coming in everywhere. We had problems with snow blowing into the building," Strohsack said. "... If people ever went over to that building, they would understand why we need this." Before he was appointed as assistant safety service director by Brubaker, Strohsack served as the senior fleet manager at the Central Maintenance Garage for nearly 27 years, and he has been involved with trying to get a new facility to house the fleet since it was first mentioned more than a decade ago. "I am going to be able to sleep tonight, that is no lie," he said. In 2025, City Council approved a project labor agreement for the project, which was negotiated with the Laborer's International Union of North America Local 758. Under the agreement, whatever company was selected to carry out the project would be required to follow certain guidelines negotiated by the union, including prevailing wage, dispute resolution and safety guidelines. Local 758 delegate Chuck Brooky said that the PLA would allow the project to be carried out by local union members, and that it was the first labor agreement for a public project in the county since the construction of Lorain High School, which was finished in 2016. "We are all local taxpayers who pay for the construction of these buildings, but they never let us build them," Brooky said. "It is frustrating. We really appreciate Mayor Brubaker and the city for giving us this opportunity." Under the agreement and the contract with Rycon, Brooky said that local labor would have the Public Works Complex open on time and under budget. "We know that this project is going to represent, and does represent, progress in a long-term investment in this community, and we are proud to be a part of that," said Jordan Stone, vice president of operations for Rycon. "We are not only looking forward to building this impressive structure, but just being a part of a project that is going to provide so much opportunity for local workers, businesses and families who are going to benefit from this development for many years, brings a lot of joy to our hearts at Rycon." The architects on the project were Strollo Architects and A Neider Architecture, both of Youngstown. Crews have already begun to move first to prepare the property for construction, and Stone said that work would intensify once the weather became more consistent. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.