The city of Ellsworth is looking to consolidate its school bus garage, water department and parks and recreation facilities at a shared site.
City officials are requesting proposals to lease a building within three miles of City Hall, according to city documents. The interior must be at least 20,000 square feet and be able to accommodate school buses and at least 35 employees, or be renovated to do so.
Proposals will be accepted until Jan. 28, and the City Council will award the contract to the winning bidder during its Feb. 17 meeting.
This move is the latest step in a string of efforts to upgrade the city’s aging infrastructure, a byproduct of Ellsworth’s growing population. City officials recently created a parks and recreation department and plan to replace the water treatment facility at Clearwater Way.
Ellsworth Police Department relocated from its former cramped offices at City Hall to an 8,400-square-foot site in September 2023.
The site would be used to store and clean a fleet of school buses, transportation vehicles, landscaping tools and public works equipment, according to the city.
“The goal is to streamline operations, better protect and maintain City-owned assets, and improve efficiency by co-locating services that already work closely together,” Amy Kenney, the city’s communications director, said.
After years of leasing separate facilities, city staff are evaluating options that consider the city’s future storage needs for the school, water, and parks and recreation departments, Kenney said. Ellsworth’s population has climbed by more than 5% since 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Officials anticipate continued growth as the council receives new business permit applications and 2025 marked Acadia National Park’s busiest year ever.
The school department’s current bus garage, which has been at 175 Bucksport Road for more than eight years, houses the 17 buses for Ellsworth’s elementary, middle and high schools, and Hancock County Technical Center. Most of the buses are stored in outdoor lots, parked under canopy roofing.
The water department has operated out of 225 High St., the former location of Payless shoe store at Maine Coastal Mall, since Dec. 2022.
The city has struggled in recent months with a wave of water system problems: residents have received boil-water orders for potential contamination, and a conservation notice. The city plans to address deteriorating infrastructure by replacing the Branch Lake water treatment plant with a $20 million facility at the same location.
The city is interviewing candidates for water superintendent, a position now held on an interim basis by Michael Harris, who is also the city’s wastewater superintendent and public works director, according to city staff.
The recently formed parks and recreation department, led by Director Roddy Ehrlenbach from his desk at City Hall, does not currently have its own facility. Ehrlenbach is responsible for overseeing Ellsworth’s parks, facilities, community events and public lands, including Harbor Park and Marina, Knowlton Park and Branch Lake Public Forest.
This city’s effort to solicit bids for a new bus garage contrasts with how it pursued a new police department, when the city accepted a single bid to lease a new police headquarters.
Councilor Steve O’Halloran and a group of local business owners filed an appeal in Hancock County Superior Court after the city signed a contract with the company. The judge later dismissed the lawsuit.