Facilities Management own department again

April 16 saw another change of county departments. The Facilities Management Department, which had been under the auspice of Bill Tensfeld since he took over the fair and facilities duties of Bob Reynolds, has two new faces to maintain and manage county buildings.

"There's a pretty big scope of work that needs to be done," said Brandy Dean of Oakesdale, the new facilities management director. With her is Adam Turnidge of Colton as facilities management superintendent.

Turnidge will primarily handle the daily maintenance of the jail, courthouse, Public Service Building, IT building and Harrison building which houses the elections department. Dean will deal with administration and oversee larger projects. She has picked up the list the county was working on from Tensfeld, but no priorities or new plans have been made with the commissioner yet.

"There are a lot of improvements that we would like to do," she said.

Dean worked in the facility services department at WSU for 11 years. Turnidge was a department maintenance supervisor for four years. Since starting, they have been busy with orientation and learning the layout of the buildings.

Removing facilities from Tensfeld's workload had nothing to do with his quality of work.

"When Bill took all those positions on, it was kind of an experiment," Commissioner Michael Largent noted. He said the plan at the time was to stay flexible, and facilities had more pressure with new projects coming up.

Dean will continue to coordinate with Tensfeld and share staff. Tensfeld also oversees Fair, Parks and Recreation and Emergency Management.