PORT ANGELES — The long-anticipated Joint Public Safety Facility could be sited on West Edgewood Drive and be ready for occupancy by the end of 2024, Clallam County commissioners have been told.
Project manager Dale Jackson told commissioners on Monday that he expects to come back to them and to the Port Angeles City Council with a briefing and recommendation as they move toward the final selection of the site.
“At this point, it appears Edgewood Drive, the Matthews property, is suitable for our needs in all regards,” said Jackson, who did not provide a specific address for the land, which has not been purchased.
“That’s not to say that we don’t still have some more inquiries we need to make as part of our due diligence,” he added.
“But I anticipate that later this month or very early in March we will be making a recommendation to go ahead and acquire that property. So that’s a significant milestone,” he said.
The estimated $13 million Joint Public Safety Facility would house the Clallam County Emergency Operations Center, which is activated during disasters such as a massive earthquake or other emergencies.
The present EOC operates from the basement of the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St. in Port Angeles. The site is too small and is in a precarious position if a massive quake, such as from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, strikes, officials have said.
The facility also would house the Emergency Management division of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Peninsula Communications (PenCom, which handles 911 calls).
The location of the facility has been discussed since 2019.
Several potential sites have been considered and dropped, including a city-owned empty lot at 18th and L streets. That site was nixed by a majority of the Port Angeles City Council after members of the community objected that the lot was being used as a practice field and placing the facility on it would take it away from children practicing to play sports.
Commissioner Mark Ozias wrote in an email Wednesday that, “the city and county are very close to feeling confident about selecting a site (pending the additional environmental assessment work that we just allocated $20k to complete).
“And that, barring unexpected news from that additional assessment, we hope to move forward full steam ahead and have the facility complete by the end of 2024.”
Jackson gave a nuts-and-bolts account of the design and construction process for a complicated new building.
“Once we’ve done that (chosen the site), we’ll start in real earnest on what we call the schematic design, which is collecting all the features in the design phase,” he said. “And that’s the real first phase of what I consider real detailed design.
“That’s where we are collecting all of the features and all of the data about the building and the site that we want to incorporate in that. And we work with the engineers and the architects to make sure they all go into the design,” he said.
After that, a detailed floor plan is developed and engineering work on the building design is started. During design development, blueprints and documents for construction are created, then the architects and engineers generate the documents that contractors will use to submit bids and build the building, he said.
“If we don’t run into any unexpected impediments, we’re hopeful we can be done with all that by the end of this year,” Jackson said.
“We’re hopeful we might be able to move our timetable up a little bit from what we have been working from and have a building ready for occupancy by the end of 2024,” Jackson said.
Ozias said: “Wow. Well, we will keep our fingers crossed.”
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.
