PORT ANGELES — The Eagles lodge building is on its way to new owners with a vote of approval for a $1.7 million purchase and sale agreement with the federal Department of Homeland Security.
The landmark Fraternal Order of Eagles building at the corner of East First and South Penn streets will become the new headquarters for the U.S. Border Patrol detachment for the North Olympic Peninsula.
The membership vote on Friday moved the sale forward toward closing Oct. 1, confirmed Chuck Hill, a past Eagles president who was present at the meetings.
“Yes, we did vote for that,” he said.
Hill refused to answer any more questions about the event.
A man who answered the phone at the Eagles lodge also refused to answer any questions.
Port Angeles radio station KONP first reported the sale Monday morning, saying the vote was 65-29 in favor of selling.
The vote followed a discussion about the financial situation of the club, the building repairs needed and the declining enrollment of the Eagles in Port Angeles, KONP said.
The government would take possession of the building next March.
Agent Rick Sinks, spokesman for the Blaine Border Patrol sector, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula, said he could not get an answer from his superiors on whether the agreement had been finalized by the government by the end of the day Monday.
“I don’t have the information available,” he said.
He contacted headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Homeland Security has been working to move the Border Patrol’s Port Angeles headquarters from the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building downtown to the larger Eagles building about 1 ¼ miles east.
Customs and Border Protection, under which the Border Patrol operates, plans to remodel the building to accommodate as many as 50 officers, while Eagles Aerie 483 members would move to smaller quarters.
There are no plans to expand the Peninsula’s current detachment of 25 agents, spokesmen at the Blaine sector have said.
Like the current Border Patrol station at 138 W. First St., which is also in a heavily commercial area, the new headquarters would include holding cells that would not be used for long-term detention, the officials have said.
Pili Meyer, the real estate listing agent for the Eagles site, did not return requests for comment.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
