SEQUIM — The Sequim City Council has approved a $38,516 contract from Maple View Enterprises to remodel the existing City Hall on West Cedar Street.
The seven-member council voted unanimously Monday to accept the bid from the Sequim business.
City Manager Steve Burkett said the remodeling will meet the city’s immediate needs until a new City Hall is built, “hopefully in the next couple of years.”
Public Works Director Paul Haines said the remodeling will allow the city to move three employees to City Hall.
Construction will take place later this year, he said.
“It’s a change of floor plan and improving the public space for the short term,” Haines said.
“The future City Hall is something much larger than that. It would be in the millions of dollars.”
City officials are negotiating for a new City Hall site downtown.
Lowest bid
Maple View Enterprises was the lowest qualified bid of four bids that ranged from $37,722 to $39,518.
“It’s going to create a lunchroom and a conference room,” Burkett said.
The remodeling will involve the rearrangement of walls, new paint, lighting and counter space.
It will allow three staffers — in human resources and communications — to move back to City Hall from newly remodeled space at Sequim Village Plaza, a strip mall adjacent to the police station south of West Washington Street.
City workers are presently scattered in offices around town.
Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois has said she supports a consolidated City Hall, in part because the extra locations cost the city $200,000 per year in rent and have made cross-department meetings difficult.
Plans for the new City Hall have been in the works for some 15 years.
The council last month passed a resolution saying the city would invest no more than $50,000 in the remodeling.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com
