The problems extend to the women's restroom, which is inoperable most of the time because of a flattened sewer pipe, Hamilton said. And a corroded sewer drain essentially shut one bay down in the fleet department for a time, she said.

All of those problems should be fixed with the construction of a new public works building. The County Council recently approved the $7.4 million during 2008 budget deliberations.

Robert Flowers, the county's new emergency management chief, said a functioning public works building is essential in the event of a catastrophic event.

"If you have an event of any significance — after you do your life-saving measures — most of a disaster becomes a public works operation after the second or third day," Flowers said. "We're trying to get a facility that is created and designed with that in mind."

Some ideas Flowers has in mind are a new traffic operations center and an operations room "where you can keep track of resources." In essence, the new facility could serve as a backup to the county's emergency operations center at 3380 S. 900 West.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com