When Jim Myers began his three decades of public service to Winter Park, the town didn’t even have a public works department.

“When we first incorporated … we had open air public works because we didn’t have a building,” Myers recalled. “They just called it street maintenance for those first couple of years.”

On Tuesday, Myers and town officials celebrated how far public works has come with the dedication and opening of its new 25,000 square foot facility off US Highway 40.

“I appreciate them doing that,” Myers said of the building bearing his name. “Council and public works have worked well together to get nice equipment and take care of it.”

The new facility is double the size of the previous building, allowing for public works to store all of its equipment indoors and offering dedicated spaces for each service the department offers.

In addition, the building has administrative space, a new sign shop, eight bays for equipment and sustainability upgrades including LED lighting and a collection tank that gathers water draining from the building and separates out the sand and oil so that the debris doesn’t end up in the Fraser River.

Winter Park’s public works department has grown its staff over the past few years in order to keep up with the development and growth of the town.

“It’s going to provide a lot more needed room,” said Mike Gruba, facilities director for public works. “Now, all the crews will be able to meet here.”

Following the dedication and public tours of the new building, the department plans to begin moving into the new facility from its temporary home next to Beaver Village Lodge. Per the agreement with Roam, which owns the land where the temporary facility is located, public works has until March 1 to completely move out.