FARMINGTON — Transporting more than 40 pallets of voting supplies, 50 shelves and 933 sensitive electronic voting machines was the first phase of Davis County’s move into its new $15 million administrative offices building.
In addition to county staff and Davis County jail inmates lending a hand for Friday’s move, the county hired OnTrac, a firm that specializes in transporting electronic voting equipment.
The Davis County Commission recently approved a $825 contract with the Salt Lake City firm, which in the past has been responsible for delivering the county’s electronic voting equipment to poll locations.
With its elections, and its election equipment, the county has to be super cautious, Davis County Chief Deputy Clerk Terry Tremea said.
The battery-operated voting machines are being moved now so all of the machines will be available for poll workers to train on prior to early voting Oct. 23, Tremea said.
The move consisted of lifting election supplies and machines about 150 yards, from the basement of the Davis County Main Branch Library in Farmington to the new administrative offices building.
Because of ongoing construction, and a fence separating the courthouse parking lot, movers had to load the equipment and supplies onto large trucks and take an extended detour to the other side of the courthouse campus, where they could unload the items and take them into the building.
There, about 8,000 square feet of the 74,000-square-foot, three-story building had been designated for the supplies and machines.
“You’ll be amazed at all the stuff we need for an election,” Davis County Director of Planning Barry Burton said.
Burton is the county’s project manager on the new administrative offices building, scheduled for a Sept. 19 completion date.
Because of the amount of time county staff will be devoting to the Nov. 6 general election, a grand opening for the office building, as well as adjoining county library, will not take place until after the election, Burton said.
The new office building and new $4.5 million county library that adjoins it are part of a $23 million county courthouse campus project.
The campus renovation project also includes the recently completed $1.6 million Davis County Children’s Justice Center, which is just east of the new office building and library.
The work on Friday did not include moving any of the election clerk’s office furnishings out of the Davis County Memorial Courthouse. The clerk’s office will continue to operate out of the old historic courthouse until after the administrative offices building is complete.
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