The city of Mashpee now has two industrial sized work bays on Mercantile Way that will serve as the headquarters for the city’s Department of Natural Resources, including the harbormaster and clam departments.

Department of Natural Resources officials said Tuesday was upset, June 29thwhen the city was closed on Units 6 and 7 at 31 Mercantile Way. The town council in May approved $ 850,000 for the purchase of the two bays.

“We haven’t really had a seat in five years,” said Ashley Fisher, the city’s natural resources director. “It will be great for us to have a space that we can call our own and work from.”

Since its inception in 2015, Mashpee’s Natural Resources Department has expanded its operations while working with equipment and facilities scattered across town.

The department, which has five full-time and a number of seasonal workers, stored equipment either on a small lot on the Little River or behind the police, had its offices in a small room in town hall and its water quality lab in the basement of the police station with no easy access to it a source of running water, said Ms. Fisher.

“We are, so to speak, in the middle between Popponesset and Waquoit [Bays]so [the new facility] will also cut travel time, ”said Ms. Fisher. “We’re really excited.”

Halley Steinmetz, a full-time waterway assistant, said she was “excited about the water quality space.”

For the past few years, waterway assistants have worked in a greenhouse next to the Little River that “freezes” in winter and “an oven” in summer, Ms. Steinmetz said. The new facility will provide more comfortable working conditions and will “quickly track” much of the work done by the department, she said.

“I’m pleased to announce that the city now officially owns Units 6 and 7,” said City Manager Rodney C. Collins on Tuesday as he handed Ms. Fisher the keys to the new facility. “This really is a new chapter, I wish you all the best.”

Jeffrey Smith, the city’s harbourmaster, said the new facility will “keep our facilities longer” as the department can “take the time to clean boats and other equipment and do preventative maintenance in a controlled environment.”

The new facility will be used by the department immediately, although it could take some time to approve and build office space, a water quality laboratory, and other renovations on the two bays – which were as yet undefined as of Tuesday, Dr. said Fischer.

The city of Mashpee previously had plans to build a $ 4.4 million natural resources department next to the city’s Fire Station 2 on Red Brook Road, but decided to purchase the two industrial bays last February.