'The cost keeps growing': Decades of deferred maintenance leaves Portland CityFleet garage in decay
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — City employees currently use a dumpster to collect the pools of tar and rainwater that drip from the roof of the 102-year-old garage that the City of Portland still uses to maintain thousands of its pricey industrial vehicles like dump trucks, Bobcats and the Portland Police Bureau’s Mobile Command Center.
The failing roof is one of numerous hazards that exist at CityFleet’s Kerby Garage, which Maty Sauter, the manager of Portland’s Division of Asset Management said, is in a state of disrepair after 48 years of deferred building maintenance. Facing potential disaster, the division hopes to convince the city council to budget for a new facility in a year marred by budget cuts.
“We have no other choice,” Sauter said. “This facility has been flagged since 1976 as being inappropriate for fleet operations. There have been seven attempts since then to move CityFleet out of this location.”
Other issues with the building, Sauter said, include an irreparably slanted floor that causes heavy machinery to haphazardly slide off tire chocks, threatening the lives of the mechanics working underneath them, and the absence of a modern fire alarm, sprinkler system and smoke detectors, despite the 45,000-gallon tank of diesel fuel that’s buried on the property.
Facing estimated repairs of $43 million, Portland’s Division of Asset Management will soon present the City Council with a plan to move the CityFleet facility from 2835 Kerby Ave. in North Portland to a 105,000-square-foot leased property at 6800 Cutter Circle on Swan Island.
With Mayor Ted Wheeler asking all city departments except Portland Fire & Rescue, the Portland Police Bureau and the Bureau of Emergency Communications to slash their budgets by 5% amid a significant budget shortfall, the city will once again have to decide if it can afford the $53 million needed to move CityFleet out of the dilapidated garage.
“There is no political advantage for an elected body to invest in capital maintenance and there never has been,” Wheeler said. “And that’s why, for 50 years, this project has been put forth by the bureau for city councils, and a whole string of mayors going back to 1976, and it’s been ignored. And the cost just keeps growing.”
If the city approves the relocation, the Division of Asset Management plans to sign a lease on the new maintenance facility on Jul 1.