The city of Spokane holds a groundbreaking Friday for a building centered on garbage trucks, plows, and other fleet. The new Nelson Service Center will be a one-stop shop for city fleet. Its primary roles will be as the home of solid waste management, i.e. garbage trucks, and as a fleet maintenance facility.

City spokesperson Marlene Feist says the building will house the garbage trucks, plows, and graders, and maintenance work will be done on site. Feist says they’re taking advantage of the space to roll out a new fuel system.
 
Feist: “We’ll have enough room to put in a compressed natural gas fueling depot, if you will, for our solid waste trucks. So over the next 10 years we’re going to convert that fleet from diesel fuel to compressed natural gas. And actually that’s where we’re getting the primary savings to afford this facility. Once the entire fleet is converted, we anticipate fuel savings of up to a million dollars a year.”
 
She says Avista will extend a natural gas line to the facility to fuel city garbage trucks. Feist says it’s time the city consolidate some of its utility buildings. Mayor David Condon says some services are literally housed in former stables and 100 year old buildings.
 
The 57,000 square foot Nelson Service Center is being built in the Chief Garry Park neighborhood, and is set to open fall of 2015.
 
Copyright 2014 Spokane Public Radio