PORT TOWNSEND — A building used by the Coast Guard for more than 50 years should be moved this weekend to make way for a new Port Townsend Coast Guard station at the Boat Haven marina site on Benedict Spit.
“The movers have until Monday to move the building,” said port Executive Director Larry Crockett, who expects it to be taken down Benedict and Jefferson streets through the marine work yard to the maintenance yard site.
It would be moved early in the morning to avoid disrupting car traffic.
Monroe House Movers of Quilcene must move the building by Monday to a new site the port has created in the port’s maintenance yard, adjacent to the Boat Haven Industrial Park ship yard.
Although Coast Guard plans were not available, the port reports that the 1,600 square-foot building will be replaced by a similar sized, one-story structure with an equipment garage.
Jim Pivarnik, port deputy director, said a security fence will be added at Benedict Spit, a federal Homeland Security requirement.
A company was rewiring power to the nearby dock at the marina on Friday, where the Coast Guard cutter Osprey is moored.
Coast Guard personnel have relocated offices from the old building to temporary quarters in the port industrial park.
The building’s footprint would remain about the same at the end of Benedict Spit but the front of the building would be turned toward A-B docks, Crockett said.
The only issue the port commissioners and staff have discussed is the fact that placing a permanent structure on Benedict Spit would eliminate the possibility of removing the spit, which the port had considered in the past to expand the marina.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
