Canton, Ohio, sanitation department to move into new $6.7M facility

Later this month, sanitation services in Canton, Ohio, will move into a new $6.7 million, roughly 35,000-square-foot facility. 

The building, designed by GPD Group and constructed by Mike Coates Construction, will provide a dedicated space for the city’s 52 full-time employees responsible for waste removal for the first time in decades.

As reported by The Canton Repository, the sanitation department currently operates out of four rooms at the Canton Service Center complex that it shares with the city’s Department of Motor Vehicles. 

The new building, located in the southeast corner of the complex, includes separate offices for the sanitation superintendent, assistant superintendent, administrative assistants and route supervisors. It also includes separate showers and locker rooms for men and women, which the department doesn’t have now, The Repository reports. 

Garbage trucks, which currently are housed outside, will be located inside the new complex, with a capacity for 20 to 25 vehicles. The building also has a wash bay designed specifically for sanitation trucks. 

Jason Currence, a waste collector and recently elected president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2937, says bringing the trucks inside and regularly washing off the debris will help extend the life of the equipment, which can cost more than $350,000 per truck.

The city borrowed $10 million in 2022 to cover the design, construction and oversight of the sanitation building which was expected to cost $8.3 million.

The project, which was done under a project labor agreement, is expected to cost roughly $6.7 million when it’s finalized later this month. The borrowed amount will be repaid by revenue the department collects in monthly fees that the city’s roughly 24,000 customers pay for trash service, The Repository reports.