Minibus celebrates remodeled building

WASHINGTON — Community members gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Washington County Minibus building Tuesday afternoon. The public transit organization was celebrating the recent expansion of its office space.

Minibus Director Cris Gaughan said the upgrades were badly needed. The old building was not ADA compliant, had thin walls, only one bathroom for 25 people, and a severe lack of space.

“Being able to have staff lunch in the break room, the meetings and trainings in the break room or the boardroom were very important to me,” she said. “I couldn’t have an entire staff meeting because we wouldn’t all fit in one room … we had staff eating in their bus because they didn’t have anywhere else.”

Gaughan said she was pleased with the upgrades.

“You smile every day,” she said. “The dispatcher can shut her door so she can hear what’s going on, and everybody has their own office. Before, they did not. We’re very happy.”

“Our building was very dated … we finally came up with a design and contractors. So we got started and broke ground last October,” she said. “I speak for me and hopefully my staff as well when I say we are so happy every single day … it’s been a long time coming.”

The project was largely financed by a $460,000 grant from ECICOG, and took around a year to finish. The previous office space now serves as bus storage, while an expansion in front of the building provides a modern office environment.

"The best plan we could come up with to let them keep working here was an addition on the front,“ Greiner Construction Lead General Contractor Russ Hunger said. ”We worked on that and as soon as we finished, they moved there. And then we demo’d all this, put steel on the walls and cut two doors in so they could drive through.“

Hunger said the project fit well with the site’s original design.

“They were going to build a whole new building, and to be efficient, we came up with a better way to do that and turn this into shop,” he said. “It was already framed that way.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com