As part of an overall effort to redevelop its downtown area, Oakwood has nearly finished moving its public works operation to a city-owned industrial park off W White Road.

“We’ve got most of the stuff over there, but there is still more work to be done to finish it up,” City Manager Stan Brown said.

The work should be completed by late June or early July.

Some immediate needs are pinching moving plans, including grass cutting and watering trees and plants that were put in as part of an Interstate 985 beautification project, Brown said.

The public works move would help clear out downtown space for future development, as part of the ambitious Oakwood 2030 plan, which calls for a town commons, retail shops and a neighborhood village.

The department has been based for years off Railroad Street next to the police department and city park.

To have “(trash bins), trash trucks, tractors and all the materials that go along with that” on the same block as those other services “is not conducive to what we’re trying to create downtown,” Brown said.

Immediate change could come in the form of additional parking for the police department, which also will be able to use a couple of remaining buildings for car maintenance and equipment storage.

The city probably will get rid of a trailer that housed public works offices.

“It’s probably not in a condition where we want to move it, so we’ll probably just scrap it out,” Brown said.

The department is borrowing a modular building from the Hall County school system to use as temporary offices at the W White Road site.

“We’ve basically set up shop adjacent to where the final (4-acre) site will be,” Brown said.

The city bought the 32-acre park in July 2010 from the owners of the RS Senter Trucking Co.

The trucking company formerly operated on the site and had since relocated.

The industrial park is south of town near Georgia Precast Concrete.

“By moving (public works) to an industrial area, we’re putting it in a more proper place,” Brown said.