New public works building brings operations under one roof
What started as a pencil drawing on a sheet of copier paper nine years ago is now a completed public works building in the heart of Baldwin, Ga.
The Junior Robinson Public Works Building opened last fall to serve the 3,600 residents of the tiny but growing town in northeast Georgia. Grady Junior Robinson started to work for Baldwin 39 years ago when he was one of two employees in the water department. “He’s really given his whole life to Baldwin,” noted Public Works Director Scott Barnhart. “We thought it was important to honor him this way.”
Robinson, who plans to retire next year, has not only done his job well, but he has also mentored young employees, helping to create an effective team for the town of Baldwin, Barnhart said.
The new public works building gathers Baldwin’s public utilities, streets department and parks department into one structure. “We were working out of very old, unpleasant buildings before this,” Barnhart sad.
The public utilities department was housed in a 3,600-square-foot metal building that included one office with one desk. “It was coming down around us,” Barnhart added.
The streets department was also working in an antiquated metal building, and the parks department was in a tiny concrete block structure.
The new 7,000-square-foot building is a move into the future for the town that purchased 13 acres of land to begin the project. “We basically started from scratch.”
From the initial conversation with the mayor at the time, Barnhart weathered changes in town administration, acquiring and developing the land, finding funding sources, and shepherding changes in design. “We really started pushing hard in 2020 to get this done.”
The town broke ground for the new building in November 2023 and took 10 months to construct the $1.5 million project. Habersham County SPLOST VII money from a one-cent special local option sales tax that helps pay for county and city projects and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funded the project.
Barnhart said the building was constructed with future expansion in mind. “Right now, we have three offices, one for the public works supervisor, and one for me, the public works director. The third office will be for an administrative assistant.”
He hopes that office will be occupied in the next budget year, meaning that the office will be open to the public to take care of business on-site, eliminating the need for documents to be transferred from city hall to the public works building.
Among the features of the new building are storage areas for parts, supplies and equipment, a kitchenette, locker room with a shower and a lounge area that is used for morning meetings and weekly video training sessions and meetings. Barnhart noted the lounge is also useful during emergency situations, such as snow and ice storms, when workers put in long shifts. “And it’s a good place to gather when we need to sit down and figure out what went on during a day.”
Barnhart’s department handles most general maintenance on the vehicles it uses. He’s looking forward to hiring a maintenance mechanic who will take care of not just the public works vehicles, but the town’s fire and police vehicles.
Employees and town residents are quite proud of the new facility. “When people come in for the first time, we give them a tour. It’s been great to have this new place.” In fact, having a brand-new clean facility has sparked a weekly Friday cleanup that involves mopping all the floors, including the maintenance bays.
Although only 4.9 square miles in size, Baldwin sits in both Habersham and Banks counties, straddling the Eastern Continental Divide that separates waters flowing southeastward toward the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean from waters flowing southwestward toward the Chattahoochee River and the Gulf of Mexico.
Located about 75 miles northeast of Atlanta, the town’s population has grown by about 30 percent in the last 25 years. Barnhart pointed out that the public works department has doubled from five employees when he arrived 11 years ago. Baldwin Public Works Department handles all street repairs, the maintenance of public facilities, such as parks, buildings and rights-of way, maintenance of water and sewer lines and general public services such as debris clean-up.
No1: The new $1.5 million Junior Robinson Public Works Building in Baldwin, Ga., is the result of nine years of planning. It was dedicated in September 2024. (Photo provided by Baldwin, Ga.) No2: Ample space and comfortable chairs make the lounge area of the new public works building a room for meetings, training sessions and debriefing after a long shift. (Photo provided by Baldwin, Ga.) 
No3: A clean locker room and shower facility make working in the new Robinson Public Works Building a much better environment than the previous location. (Photo provided by Baldwin, Ga.) No4: The shine on the floor is no accident of being new. Employees have scheduled a Friday cleanup and mopping to keep the new building in tip-top shape. (Photo provided by Baldwin, Ga.)
