When There are Things to Maintain in Sammamish, it is Good to Have a Large Operations and Storage Yard

It might be a sign that with , there are more roads, parks and sidewalks to maintain.

Then again, there's always the need to repair and improve what the city has owned since incorporation in 1999 - and to have operations under one roof.

The  recently opened a 17,862-square-foot maintenance operations yard, shop and office building, which houses large utility trucks and tools that would make any hardware store owner proud.

Sammamish Patch visited the facility, located at 1801 244th Avenue Northeast, largely in part to see the heavy equipment and industrial-strength items that, well, are hard to own on your own.

As in: A backhoe, two backhoe loaders, big trucks used to push snow off streets and a riding mower to cut grass over acres of land.

The three-floor facility sits on about five acres and cost about $5 million to build and design, Kyle Endelman, city maintenance and infrastructure manager, said.

City staff, including members from the parks department, moved in during the second week of May. The new building consolidates space from two other facilities that city staff used.

One was the Lamb House, a 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot building off 228th Avenue, Endelman said. The other was a shop near Beaver Lake, a building that provided about 2,500 sqaure feet.

"I get to see all the equipment and staff every day," he said. "We don't have to go all over the city to get things." 

Stroll through the maintenance and operations yard to see scores of shovels, rakes and tires. The facility is home to about 18 trucks and vehicles, including multi-use ones that can be outfitted with snow plows, Endelman said.

If a  or serious  sweeps and , this facility will likely be open around the clock. Endelman explained that when the building is fully staffed, there will be about 34 people.

That number, he added, could fluctuate depending on the season.

Community groups will like the fact that there is a meeting room that can be rented. That option might start early next year, Endelman said.

From the perspective of Michelle Garcia, a city office assistant, the bonus of working in the new building is having better communication with colleagues.

Instead of working out of two buildings, they now work in one. "I worked out of the Lamb House. It was pretty small," she said.

"It was hard to communicate with all the staff. It's wonderful to have us together. We're all one team."