The city of Reynoldsburg is embarking on a $31-million renovation and expansion of its service building to better serve residents and city employees as the eastern Franklin County municipality continues to grow.

The project will consolidate the city's street, parks and recreation, water/wastewater, and stormwater departments into an expanded service building at 7806 E. Main St. that's currently home to the city's street department, Reynoldsburg Mayor Joe Begeny said.

Once the project is complete, the East Main Street site will have a new administrative building, maintenance bay, fuel station, and sufficient storage space for lawn mowers and other heavier equipment. The site's fuel station will be used for all service department vehicles and Reynoldsburg police cruisers, as well as Reynoldsburg City School buses, Begeny said.

Site preparation work is ongoing with construction to start in the spring, Begeny said, adding that the project should be completed in late spring or early summer 2026.

Begeny said the upgraded facility will allow city employees to perform a higher quality of service for residents with modern tools and equipment. The renovation and expansion will create more storage space so equipment and trucks will not be stored outside and exposed to winter weather conditions like they are currently.

But Begeny said the project is also important so the city can do right by its hard-working employees.

"In a lot of cases, we spend a lot more time in these buildings than we do with our own families," he said. "We want to make sure those facilities are up to that, that are safe and warm and comfortable, and user friendly for everything that needs to be done for a city in today's world."

Reynoldsburg residents will not see their taxes go up because of the project. Because the city has enough income tax revenue and has managed its finances well, Begeny said the city could essentially get a loan without going to voters to ask for new money. He said based on Reynoldsburg's economic growth trajectory, city officials have planned what resources the service building will need for the next five to 10 years, and they'll build that into the city's general budget.

"I don't want to go to the taxpayers for something like that to either raise an income tax threshold or anything like that," Begeny said. "Honestly, we have to do what cities should be doing, which is driving economic growth and bringing different businesses in and having that income tax portion pay for the services and things that we can provide."