PORT ANGELES — The building the federal Marine and Air Operations Office is renting from the Port of Port Angeles will be part of an expansion of its North Olympic Peninsula presence, the director said Wednesday.
Although Jim Warfield, director of marine operations for the region, declined to say how many personnel are currently in the area or how many would be stationed on the Peninsula, he said they would expand operations to at least having a person on duty 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
“I can’t get into specific numbers of personnel,” he said. “That is a tactical thing.”
Doy Noblitt, spokesman for the Border Patrol, said the building leased to the Marine and Air Operations is a separate issue from the facility that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is seeking to build in Port Angeles.
The Border Patrol facility would house officers and a short-term detention facility.
“We are still pursuing a facility,” Noblitt said. “The building that a lease was approved for is not the same as the one we are looking for.”
Both the Marine and Air Operations Office and the Border Patrol are divisions of the federal Department of Homeland Security.
Marine and Air Operations agents patrol air and water borders, while the Border Patrol works on land.
Warfield said the air branch of the department will remain based in Bellingham, while the marine portion will be in Port Angeles.
He said the 6,028 square-foot building the agency is leasing from the port, which is at 1908 O St., is an interim solution.
“It is a temporary facility. Eventually, we want to build one of our own,” he said.
“Temporary, for now, is three to five years, but there are a lot of factors, so that could mean 10 or 15 years.”
He said the increase in personnel would happen gradually.
The department did not specify how many agents the building would include, said Bill James, port interim executive director.
The lease approved by the commission Monday was for $6,522.40 per month or $78,268.80 per year.
The lease includes janitorial support and utilities.
The department currently uses one desk at the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building at 138 W. First St. in Port Angeles, where the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is based.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
