When Greene County Director of Buildings and Grounds Jeff Novak initially accepted his position, the department was known as the Greene County Bridge Department, with a sole focus of maintaining the 87 different bridges owned by Greene County.
Today, the department has expanded to not only maintaining bridges, but also performing maintenance and repair on the many of the buildings owned by the county, including the courthouse. Grounds upkeep and snow removal also come under Jeff’s supervision.
“We are a small department,” says Jeff. “We have four custodians and we employ a team of licensed carpenters and contractors to help us out as needed. We usually split into two groups, with one group responsible for the bridges and the other concentrating on renovations at the courthouse and other buildings as needed.”
A recent such project was the replacement of the roof on the county-owned building that houses the Airport Restaurant and several offices located at the Greene County Airport. After the previous roof succumbed to weather damage, Jeff and his team were called in to make the repairs, which required the installation of a new metal roof.
“We started the project in January by assessing the damage and pricing the required materials,” Jeff says. “We went with a metal roof because it was the most affordable. We had to deal with weather throughout the process, but a month later the job was complete.”
Currently, Jeff says a top priority for his team is making sure that Greene County’s courthouse is kept up to the CDC standards for cleanliness during the pandemic.
“We make sure that the HVAC system is properly circulating clean air through the courthouse 24/7,” says Jeff. “Our custodial staff does a deep cleaning of the building three times a day and is constantly sanitizing and disinfecting.”
Jeff doesn’t hesitate to add that at the heart of it all, maintaining the county’s 87 bridges is still one of the department’s biggest sources of pride.
“We are one of the few counties that do our own maintenance on our bridges,” Jeff says. “Most of the bridges throughout the township are county owned, and twice a year we go out to clear weeds or overgrowth, power wash, and make sure the bridges look good and are safe. It is a source of pride for us and shows how we have grown.”