Our Challenges
The City’s Public Works and Public Safety buildings do not meet today’s standards for safety, efficiency, and health.
The Public Works Department is responsible for managing essential public infrastructure and services, including water, sanitary sewer, and storm water systems, road maintenance, snow removal, park and trail maintenance, and more.
How the Public Works buildings don’t support the delivery of services:
With each building lacking adequate space, City employees must often move from one building to another to do various elements of their jobs, which is inefficient and wastes time and resources.
The Park, Street, and Utilities Maintenance buildings are split-level without elevators, meaning limited accessibility for employees and visitors.
Two of the Public Works buildings do not provide equitable and inclusive accommodations for staff.
Limited space makes it difficult to safely store and maneuver vehicles and equipment in and out of the buildings.
Due to a lack of space, some equipment and materials must be stored remotely. This creates significant lag times for public service assignments to be completed and adds annual labor and operating costs.
Men’s Fire Department locker spaces
Women’s Fire Department locker spaces
Golden Valley’s Public Safety building does not provide adequate space for modern Police and Fire Department operations, including:
lack of proper storage for police equipment, vehicles, and files (some must often be stored off site due to space constraints, forcing staff to visit other buildings to use these items)
inadequate training space, including a lack of a dedicated space for police officers to learn and practice physical training techniques and for firefighters to train with equipment (most firefighter training occurs on concrete and outdoors — even during winter)
lack of equitable and inclusive locker rooms for police and fire staff
lack of public meeting rooms (police interviewees must be brought into the secured office space, which violates best practices for keeping the public and staff safe)
inadequate office space (two or more staff members often share space intended for one)
inadequate room for firefighters to quickly and safely change into tactical gear when they respond to an emergency call
no dedicated workspace for safely cleaning firefighting equipment and gear, which exposes firefighters to carcinogens and endangers their health
no sleeping and eating quarters to support a 24-hour duty crew staffing model for the Fire Department
outdated ventilation systems, which contribute to poor air quality
