Washington County facilities manager reports 12,000 work orders in 2025, outlines campus projects and staffing

Kara Herdrich, Washington County facilities manager, told the Public Works Committee that her department completed over 12,000 work orders in 2025 and is responsible for facility operations, custodial services, asset management and project delivery countywide.

Herdrich said the department has 19 people (16 full-time and three part-time), including an in-house maintenance team, an HVAC technician and custodial staff who support the sheriff’s office and justice center. "We did over 12,000 work orders in 2025 within our department," she said, characterizing that volume as a high workload for a small staff and noting the department uses a work-order system to track preventive and reactive maintenance and time-to-completion.

Herdrich described major ongoing projects including the courthouse remodel and other facility projects across the county, and said the department builds a 10-year repair-and-replacement projection every two years based on inspections and maintenance records. She highlighted recent changes in staff technology (technicians using iPads in the field) and a safety program that included OSHA training; she said the department surpassed two years without a lost-work accident in March 2025 but added that there have been a "couple since then." The presentation emphasized planning, asset stewardship and communication protocols for construction and system outages.

Why it matters: facilities operations undergird county services; deferred maintenance or insufficient staffing can disrupt multiple departments. Herdrich’s overview signaled capacity constraints because of project volume and a reliance on both in-house staff and vendor contracts for some work.

What happens next: committee members thanked the presenter and indicated they had no further questions at this time. Staff will continue project updates and budget requests through the normal capital planning process.