LA GRANDE — The La Grande School District’s shop for maintenance and grounds work has a new home for the first time in at least four decades.

The move from an old building constructed about 110 years ago at 902 M Ave. to a building complex at 1806 Jefferson Ave., which earlier was part of Adams Professional Plaza, is now almost complete. Kevin Browning, a member of the La Grande School District’s plant and operations staff, is delighted with the new space.

“We like it. It is a good upgrade,” he said. “The old building was dark, dingy and kind of gloomy. This building is new and bright.”

Dustin Knight, also a member of the La Grande School District’s plant and operations staff, agreed.

“We’re looking forward to working in this new building,” he said. “It is a new chapter for the maintenance department.”

The move into the building started last fall, according to Joseph Waite, the school district’s plant operations director. Waite said the equipment and materials were gradually moved by his staff into the Adams Avenue location, now named the school district’s Plant and Operations Center.

The move is being made because the school district will soon begin construction of an academic and athletic building, the Wildcat Center, just north of La Grande Middle School and in the vicinity of where the old shop building is. The shop building will be torn down this summer to help make room for the construction of the Wildcat Center.

The space created by the demolition of the shop building will provide temporary parking for school district teachers and staff and additional room for the construction process.

The structure the school district is moving into has thousands of square feet of floor space but less than what the shop department had access to for storage, which included portions of the Annex gym building. The difference will be made up by making good use of the large amount of ceiling space the building has, Waite said.

Supplies and equipment at the Plant and Operations Center site will be easier to access because it is spacious enough to operate forklifts on its concrete floor. The old shop and Annex building site did not have enough room for the operation of forklifts indoors, forcing employees to carry items in and out for years.

“Reaching items will involve a lot less work because we will be able to use a forklift,” Waite said.

The forklift used will have to be an electric one to allow for indoor work. The school district currently does not have an electric forklift but will later purchase one, Waite said.

Browning said that getting and transporting equipment and materials in the new building will also be much easier because it is big enough to easily drive vehicles through.

Waite said portions of the former shop building were likely once used as educational spaces. Evidence of this includes old chalkboards that are still in the building.

Browning said because portions of the old building were originally designed to be classrooms, it was not ideal for maintenance shop purposes, unlike the Plant and Operations Center’s new home.

“It better suits us,” he said.