VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — As the community tries to grapple with the tragedy in Virginia Beach, some city employees have worked long hours to find places for the employees of Building 2 to work.
About 150 employees who were not affected by the tragedy are currently working out of the new locations. Other departments who have employees that were affected have chosen not to return yet.
Tom Nicholas, the Facilities Engineer for Public Works has worked since Saturday morning to figure out where the 349 employees who worked in Building 2 would be relocated to.
“It was an awful lot of work. It’s hard to imagine,” said Nicholas. “It’s sort of like moving 349 people from their homes. It’s very personal for me. I know five of the people [victims] very well. I haven’t taken time to process that. There are those of us in these types of jobs, it’s our job to get those impacted through that process as quickly as possible.”
The temporary plan is to relocate the nearly 350 public works employees to 26 different locations.
Each department within public works will be assigned a new location. Nicholas said some employees will relocate to different buildings at the municipal center. Others will go to vacant spaces at the Clark Nexsen building in Town Center, the Emergency Medical Services building on Virginia Beach Blvd., the Sadler Center, the Virginia Beach Housing Resource Center and other spaces leased by the city.
The workspaces at all locations will be ready by Monday.
Nicholas said he anticipates most employees will return to work early next week, but it’s up to each department within public works to decide when they will return.
The belongings of those who worked in Building 2 are still out of reach.
They’ll return to work at a desk they’ve never encountered.
“It’s new phones, computers, power and cable. People will go to work right now without access to things in their offices. When we get access to the building, we will go back inside multiple times to get files that they need. That’s the next challenge,” said Nicholas.
The future of Building 2 remains uncertain, but Nicholas said city leaders are making it a priority to find a way to prevent the victim’s coworkers from returning to Building 2 in the future.
The city’s communication team will release a list of where each relocated service will be.
That list will go out to the public on Monday.
City officials will release a list of all relocated services.