PORT TOWNSEND — The federal General Services Administration should decide soon if it will lease space from the Port of Port Townsend for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol office uses, a GSA spokesman said.
“We anticipate it will take three to four weeks before we make an award,” said Ross Buffington, GSA Northwest communications specialist.
“We have to determine if the space meets the space requirements and whatever security or handicapped needs we have.”
Buffington declined to specify what other sites were being considered besides some 1,770 square feet of port space inside the port’s administrative offices at Point Hudson.
Port Commissioner Chairman Dave Thompson said the office would be used to house a U.S. Customs agent but could be used periodically by Border Patrol agents.
He said it would mean that the port would once again become a port of entry, status it lost two years ago when U.S. Customs relocated its agent in Port Angeles.
Should the GSA award the lease to the port, it could use space that would include the Port of Port Townsend commissioners’ meeting room.
The other space was formally used by staffers with the Northwest Maritime Center, which moved out when the center opened at the end of Water Street last year.
“Normally, we go out and physically look at the ones we think will work,” Buffington said.
Port Deputy Director Jim Pivarnik confirmed that a Port Townsend-based Customs agent and a Border Patrol representative from Seattle looked at the space about three months ago.
Pivarnik said he applied to the GSA, offering the space for lease.
“To date, we have not heard whether they are interested or not,” Pivarnik said.
Buffington said the GSA worked with local real estate brokers to identify potential sites for offices.
Besides the 1,770 square feet of space, the GSA called for two secured parking spaces and two visitor parking spaces, he said.
The building must be located within the area of Port Townsend bounded by the waterfront, Franklin, Hudson and Walker streets, he said.
A group of Port Townsend-area residents last week voiced opposition to the possibility of U.S. Customs and the Border Patrol leasing space from the port.
Five residents — four of whom are members of the group Border Patrol Free — approached the Port of Port Townsend commissioners Wednesday, explaining their opposition to the growing Border Patrol presence on the North Olympic Peninsula and urging the commissioners not to lease the port space for Border Patrol use.
The Border Patrol Free Network is a group of organizations and individuals who oppose Border Patrol activities inside the U.S. borders and who seek to reverse the expansion of Homeland Security on the Peninsula, said the group’s website, www.bpfree.org.
The Port Angeles Border Patrol station — headquarters for agents in both Jefferson and Clallam counties — had grown from four agents in 2006 to 25 in 2008.
The station is expected to move next year to larger quarters that could accommodate up to 50 agents after Homeland Security finalizes the purchase of the Eagles Aerie 483 Lodge in Port Angeles.
The Border Patrol is the uniformed law enforcement arm of U.S. Customs and Border Protection within the Department of Homeland Security.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
