Darien Department of Public Works 2016

Government & Politics

What the Town Would Get for $5M in Improvements at the DPW Garage

By David Gurliacci | May 3, 2016

A Department of Public Works is one of any town’s “critical” departments — keeping streets cleared and passable for first responders and others after storms and other emergencies, and, year-round, maintaining crucial public services, a consultant remarked in a presentation to the Darien Board of Selectmen. The consultant, David Stein, a principal with Silver + Petrucelli, an architectural and engineering consulting firm, recommended about $5 million worth of renovations and some expansions of the DPW garage building, originally constructed in the early 1940s, that houses many of the vehicles and provides a workplace for many of the employees of the town DPW. (Maintenance employees for Darien Public Schools and the Parks & Recreation Department also work there, and equipment for those departments is stored there.)

Despite renovations over the decades, the garage building, located next to the town transfer station and recycling center, has a number of problems that reduce safety, make it harder for employees to work there and for the town to maintain its equipment there:

The sprinkler system is below standard. Water pools on the flat roof, which needs be improved. Employees, who can be working long hours during storms, don’t have anything more than a “makeshift bunk room” to wait in.