This week South Portland officials celebrated the official groundbreaking for a new $15.7 million Municipal Services Facility and transfer station that is “long overdue,” according to Mayor Linda Cohen.

The first phase of the project will be construction of the new transfer station, which should be completed by mid-December, according to Rick Towle, the city’s director of parks and recreation.

The second phase will consist of building the new Municipal Services Facility, which will take the place of the current public works garage on O’Neil Street.

Towle said the second phase should start next spring with a completion date of early 2017.

In kicking off the groundbreaking ceremony, held Monday at 929 Highland Ave., Towle said it was “an historic occasion for the entire community,” and he thanked residents for supporting a $14 million bond in November 2013 that will help pay for the project.

The remaining $1.7 million is coming out of the city’s capital improvement fund.

Cohen said, “There is no place I would rather be this evening. This is something that’s so very needed and long overdue (and) I can’t wait to see the finished project.”

She also noted that when she first joined the City Council in 2012 one of her top priorities was to push for a new public works building.

Following the groundbreaking ceremony Cohen added, “Our employees deserve a first-rate facility.”

In his comments, City Manager Jim Gailey called the groundbreaking the final step in a long process that really started about 20 years ago with the acknowledgement that the O’Neil Street facility needed to be replaced.

He noted that a failed referendum in 2003 showed city officials that “we needed to pound the pavement and show what we needed for a new complex.”

Gailey said creating a citizen’s committee to back the 2013 referendum was a “tremendous help” in “supporting the need for a new facility. They were really community cheerleaders and I thank each and every one of them.”

He also thanked city staff for “putting the effort in” to create a project that was acceptable both to the City Council, as well as the voters.

Gailey said once the new Municipal Services Facility is built it should serve the city for the next 50 to 75 years. He also acknowledged that it wasn’t easy for residents to support a $14 million bond, but the “need was seen and appreciated.”

Gailey said the reason the groundbreaking was held almost two years after the bond first received approval is due to the “creativity of the finance director,” who argued the city should wait until a significant amount of debt was retired, which would lessen the impact of the project on the tax rate.

Doug Howard, South Portland’s public works director, said one of the best things about the new facility will be the efficiency of having public works, parks and recreation and the transportation department all working out of the same fleet maintenance building.

“This is the beginning of a new way of doing business,” Howard said. “Of sharing ideas and resources and of easier access for residents.”

Like the other speakers, he also thanked the voters for approving the project and “showing overwhelming support.”

Following the groundbreaking, Towle said residents should know that both the current transfer station and public works garage would remain operational until the new facility is completed.

On Monday the city of South Portland celebrated the groundbreaking for its new Municipal Services Facility and transfer station. From left are Arthur Handman, director of the city’s bus service, Rick Towle, director of parks and recreation, Doug Howard, director of public works, City Manager Jim Gailey, Mayor Linda Cohen, councilors Tom Blake, Claude Morgan and Maxine Beecher, and citizen Russ Lunt, who was a member of the committee that helped the bond for the new facility pass in November of 2013. Staff photo by Kate Irish CollinsRick Towle, director of parks and recreation, speaks at the groundbreaking for South Portland’s new Municipal Services Facility.Staff photo by Kate Irish Collins

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