The crews who keep Olive Branch’s streets, gas lines, water and sewer running finally have a modern place to work. City leaders cut the ribbon Oct. 20 on the new Olive Branch Public Works building at 10460 Highway 178, near the Olive Branch Police Department, according to the DeSoto Times-Tribune.
The $8.9 million facility replaces a building the department moved into in 1995 and had long outgrown. Public Works employees began working from the new site in September, about a month before the formal ceremony with city officials, employees and contractors.
Inside the new Olive Branch Public Works building
The building offers about 22,000 square feet of space, along with:
Dedicated workspace for the department’s divisions
Storage space for equipment and supplies
Shower facilities for employees
More parking and room for additional equipment
“These men and women are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Mayor Ken Adams said during the ceremony, before thanking the department’s employees directly.
A big job for a big department
Public Works is the city’s third-largest department, with about 100 employees. Its divisions cover streets, sanitation, natural gas, water, sewer and facility maintenance.
The department’s reach goes well beyond city limits. Crews maintain about 250 miles of roads, serve roughly 17,500 homes and oversee more than 1,300 miles of sewer lines. Its service area covers about 113 square miles, including 56 square miles inside the city and portions of unincorporated DeSoto County and a neighboring county.
From shelved plan to finished building
Talk of a new Public Works home began in 2018, during former Mayor Scott Phillips’ second term. That early design came in at about twice the money available, and the project was shelved. Adams’ administration later scaled the plan back to its current size and cost.
The city broke ground in late 2024, construction ran through 2025, and the building was finished in 2026. At the ceremony, Adams recognized Phillips, former chief operating officer Todd Ondra, a former Public Works director, the Board of Aldermen and the contractors who built the facility.
For residents, the change should be mostly behind the scenes, but the added space and equipment storage give crews a better base for responding to water main breaks, gas calls, storm cleanup and road repairs as Olive Branch continues to grow. The building sits beside the police department on Highway 178, putting two of the city’s round-the-clock operations next to each other.
