Permit approved for new Cedar County Transit building

HARTINGTON — The Hartington City Council Monday approved a building permit for a new $1.358 million County Transit building.

RaDec Construction will begin work on the 80x125 structure in the spring. The building will be constructed on part of the old Neu Cheese Plant property, which is currently owned by Pomp’s Tires.

At present, the County rents space at the Hartington City Hall to house several vehicles in the old ambulance bay. The rest of the 10-vehicle fleet is then parked on the street outside of City Hall.

Cedar County purchased 1.6 acres of land from Pomps for $50,000 earlier this fall to be used as Cedar County Transit’s new home. Site preparation and dirt work began on the project in November.

The facility will be a steel Behlen building and will feature two offices, a wash bay and stalls for 12 Cedar County Transit vans.

Cedar County Clerk Dave Dowling said the Federal Transportation Agency will foot the bill for 80 percent of the project, which means Cedar County will only have to pay about $270,000 toward the project’s construction.

Dowling said the federal government typically pays 80 percent of the cost of operating the facility. Because of the pandemic, the Federal Transportation Agency has been paying 100 percent of the operational cost for the past several months, though. It will continue to pay 100 percent of the salaries and operating expenses through June 2021, Dowling said.

Construction on the new facility should begin in late February. It is expected to be completed in early September.

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