PORT ANGELES — The command structure of Coast Guard station on Ediz Hook will undergo major restructuring this summer.
Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles will become Sector Field Office Air Station Port Angeles as one of the first steps in merging it with the Seattle office of District 13 of the Coast Guard.
“The end run will be the command center that we have in Seattle and the command center that we have here in Port Angeles will be combined,” said the commander of the station, Capt. Scott Pollack.
The average person won’t know the difference, since the vessels and aircraft will remain in Port Angeles, he said.
“As far as the footprint goes, there will be no significant changes,” Pollack said.
Group Port Angeles — which oversees the administration and operations of Coast Guard stations in Bellingham, Neah Bay, Quillayute River as well as Port Angeles, and nine cutters, including one based in Port Townsend and another in Everett — and Sector Seattle will be combined to create Sector Puget Sound, Pollack said.
The transition will begin sometime this summer, although a specific date has not been set, and take about two years to complete, Pollack said.
The name change also will take place sometime this summer, he said, as Group Port Angeles is abolished and much of the local command center is moved to Seattle.
In terms of staffing, about six local administration positions will be moved to Seattle, he said.
Pollack, who is both the commander of the air station and group, will be the deputy commander of Sector Puget Sound.
A new commander will run the air station from Port Angeles.
Group Port Angeles was formed in 1944. The Coast Guard station has been located on Ediz Hook for much longer.
The merger is nothing unique in the Coast Guard these days.
Since 9/11, the Coast Guard has been merging groups with more regional command structures to consolidate leadership.
“The benefit is the one-stop shopping for the maritime community,” Pollack said.
Sector Portland and Group Astoria in Oregon also are merging. They will form Sector Columbia River.
After these two mergers, the only groups that will remain are in North Bend, Ore. and Humboldt, Calif., Pollack said.
Those two will also eventually be merged into sectors, he said.
The difference between a group and a sector, Pollack said, is that a sector has a port authority captain.
Sector Puget Sound and Sector Columbia River will remain in District 13, which includes Washington, Oregon, and parts of Montana and Idaho.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
