The city will move its Public Works Department into the former Hudson Heating and Cooling building after purchasing the property for $255,000.

The property is approximately two acres in size with a 6,000-square-foot building located on Woodsdale Road.

“We weren’t looking, but when the owner came to me, we were interested,” Public Works Director Rob Leichman said.

The former property owner had sold his business, which made the building available.

Leichman said the plan is to move the mechanics and maintenance facility to the building, which he explained is nearly quadruple the size of the current 1,800-square-foot facility built in 1955. The new building also has higher ceilings which will allow the mechanics to work on all vehicles inside the building as opposed to outside at the current facility.

“It’s not large enough to get everything we need under one roof,” Leichman said. “We have some modifications to make, but it is doable.”

Leichman said the facility will be paid for in five years from the water, sewer, streets, parks and refuse funds.

“We’re very fortunate to have found this because we couldn’t afford to build a new facility,” he said.

At one time, Leichman said the city did explore building a new Public Works facility on Kennel Road. To get everything on his wish list for the facility, Leichman said would have cost $1.2 million.

“That was just too much money for our coffers,” he said. “We are trying to be good stewards of the taxpayers money, so we just decided it wasn’t going to happen and put the idea aside.”

Trenton is not shutting down the current facility. It will take five to 10 years to get everything moved the “way we want it,” Leichman said.

“Everything will get moved except the salt barn,” he said.