CARLSBORG — Clallam County Public Utility District officials expect to spend about $10.2 million in the coming years to consolidate headquarters and build new space for the engineering department in Carlsborg.
PUD officials hope to begin construction in June or July next year on a new headquarters building next to the central warehouse facility at 100 Hooker Road in Carlsborg as well as on an expansion of the operations center off Carlsborg Road for the engineering department, PUD spokesman Michael Howe said.
“We anticipate going through the permitting process in March, maybe April, along that time frame,” he said.
The projects are dependent on final approval of the 2014 PUD budget by the district’s three commissioners.
Once built, the new headquarters and engineering department would take the place of the Port Angeles office and water maintenance shop, which will be put up for sale, Howe said.
Construction is estimated to take between 14 and 18 months, he added.
Howe said the designs for both facilities, through Bellevue-based architecture firm Lawhead and Associates, are about halfway finished.
The construction would have a “minor impact” on utility rates, Howe said.
“All that’s left to be determined by the commissioners,” Howe added.
Budget meetings
Commissioners will hold budget a work session at 9 a.m. Monday and Tuesday at the Port Angeles office at 2431 E. U.S. Highway 101.
The commissioners’ regular Monday 1:30 p.m. meeting will follow the Monday work session at the Port Angeles office.
The 2014 budget is expected to be approved by December.
The new construction is part of a larger facilities improvement plant that will include the demolition of unused PUD buildings in Carlsborg and Sequim, Howe said.
The empty PUD building at 410 E. Washington St., which once held the district’s Sequim customer service office, is expected to be razed next year, he said.
The building’s structural problems would make it more costly to bring the building up to code than to construct a new one, he added.
A PUD-owned building next to the Carlsborg warehouse facility also would be demolished as part of putting up the new headquarters next year, Howe said.
In 2014, the district also plans to develop a small storage area, including a pole yard, in the Forks Business Park, he added.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
