PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has two buildings it will need to bring into compliance with the state Clean Buildings Act, according to a recent audit.
The administrative campus, including the courthouse, is a Tier I building under the act because it’s more than 50,000 square feet while the juvenile detention center is a Tier II building because it’s between 20,000 and 49,999 square feet, according to a presentation that the Board of County Commissioners heard during their work session on Monday.
Currently, the administrative campus is 18.8 percent above its energy target while the juvenile center is 32 percent above its target, the presentation stated.
“Existing lighting systems are considered end-of-life and LED lighting must be implemented to comply with CBA,” the presentation stated. “Existing electric boiler is at eight years of an expected useful life of 15 years. Replacing this boiler with a heat pump system must be part of the building Energy Management Plan to comply with CBA.”
The county could come into compliance and be under its energy target by investing in both projects now.
Deadlines
As a Tier II building, the juvenile detention center isn’t required to meet energy targets until the early 2030s, the presentation stated, but upgrading to LED lighting and performing HVAC optimization upgrades “will pay for themselves through savings and produce saves for the county over the life of the project,” according to the presentation.
The deadline for compliance is July 1, 2027, and the penalty for the administrative campus not being in compliance would be $133,900 per year until compliance is reached.
“I think the projects are only going to get more expensive and the grants are here now,” Commissioner Mike French said. “This is, at some point, going to rearrange a lot of our capital plans. That’s going to be tricky for us to figure out, but I think we have recommendations for not just two projects but a few others.”
In other business, the commissioners heard from Kim Williams, the Clallam Conservation District’s district manager, about a plan to charge parcels $5 each to raise funds for the district.
“We’ve talked a lot about the instability of grant funding,” Williams said. “At this time, we are asking for a per-parcel charge or rate with a cap of $5 per parcel.”
If the conservation district were to decide to raise that rate, it would have to go through the full process again, Williams said.
“We understand moving forward we need to find a different funding path forward, so that’s what we’re doing,” she said.
The funding gap for 2025 is $158,750, she said.
Without the per-parcel fee, several programs would be on the carving block, Williams said. Those include the soil testing program, which does not have grant funding behind it, the annual native plant sale, the forestland education and wildfire prevention program would be cut completely, and native plant workshops would be cut.
The per-parcel fee, which would affect 39,630 chargeable parcels, would bring financial stability to the district, Williams said.
“It will really support a predictable funding base for us,” she said. “If approved, we would create an appeals process for people to go through, and I would work with the assessor to understand how their parcel was determined and defined, and they would go through the board of supervisors.”
If the fee is approved, it will begin to be charged in 2026 and go through 2035. The conservation district would pay the county 1 percent of its revenues to cover administrative work by the assessor’s office, Williams said.
The fee will come before the commissioners for approval during their regular board meeting on Aug. 19.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
