Posted by Heather Rutz on Oct 06, 2017
Dominion's new facility is under construction.
The new Jackson Street building project means Dominion Energy will serve the region from its roots in downtown Lima, Peggy Ehora told the club Monday.
The two-phase, $16 million project will be complete in 2018. Crews hope to have the buildings enclosed by early winter to allow work on the inside through the weather, said Ehora, external affairs manager for the Dominion’s West Central Ohio region.
Locally, Dominion traces its roots to the Lima Gas Light Company, established in the late 1800s. The iconic building at 319 (now Golden Bridge Academy) opened in 1929. The Jackson Street plant has operated since 1910, Ehora said, and much of the facility is showing its age. Over the past few years, talk of renovating the administration and maintenance buildings turned to building new. Dominion worked with the city to keep the complex in the city and work began planning how to build new on basically the same site as the company operated, Ehora said.
About 50 people work at the Jackson Street site and cover an 11-county area out of that office. Technology has certainly changed operations. Ehora contrasted early Model Ts with current bucket trucks and pickup trucks. Thirty years ago, 10 meter readers serviced the area and today that job is done by one person, who only occasionally has to leave her vehicle to do a manual reading.
The site includes 23 assembled properties, most of which had to be acquired. Some Dominion purchased and others were acquired through the city’s Land Bank. The groundbreaking was held June 27 and the utility company is using lots of local contractors such as Tuttle Construction and Smith-Boughan.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the project,” Ehora said. “We’re staying where we’ve always been and happy to be downtown.”
In other Rotary business:
Happy Dollars on Monday were earmarked for the Rotary Foundation Scholarship Fund.
The club presented a check for $1,073 to the West Central Ohio American Red Cross, from Rottery proceeds.
The Paul Harris Fellow designation was presented to Curtis Shepherd.