PORT ANGELES — Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County is moving a few blocks down Eighth Street to expand into a larger campus in Port Angeles.
A groundbreaking ceremony was conducted Friday at the site of a 2,260-square-foot storage facility for the growing nonprofit that was founded in 1978 by the late Rose Crumb.
The storage addition at 829 E. Eighth Street will be directly adjacent to new Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County (VHOCC) offices at the northwest corner of Eighth and Race streets.
Once completed in about six months, the addition will provide a vehicle garage, storage space for medical equipment, cleaning station and repair and maintenance stations.
“It’s a big step forward in the growth that we’re having,” said Bette Wood, VHOCC patient care manager, after the groundbreaking ceremony.
“We just ran out of space in our other building.”
The existing Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County building at 540 E. Eighth St., is 1,500 square feet.
VHOCC has had to turn down donated equipment and its volunteers have had to clean medical equipment outdoors behind the building.
“We’re just bulging at the seams for both people and equipment,” David Gilbert, VHOCC board secretary.
“It’s been a very necessary step to do what we’re doing.”
The 3,700-square-foot office building at Eighth and Race streets is being remodeled and will be open by early June, Office Manager Lyn Gilbert said.
General contractor Jim Miller of Sequim-based Miller Construction, Inc. said the new storage addition should be ready in five to six months.
The new building was designed by Bill Lindberg of Port Angeles-based Lindberg and Smith Architects.
“It’s a much needed expansion,” David Gilbert said.
“We were fortunate to find this existing office and the vacant land right next door so that we can connect the two facilities.”
Board President Rev. Randy Hurlbut, pastor at Sequim Valley Foursquare Church, said VHOCC is “building for the future to meet the needs of the community.”
VHOCC, which serves central and eastern Clallam County from Joyce to Diamond Point, received a $250,000 estate donation to help offset the cost of the new building and office renovations.
Volunteers working with a professional crew have helped renovate the office building at Eighth and Race streets.
Extensive water damage and dry rot required the resurfacing of some exterior walls and a new roof, VHOCC Volunteer Service Manager Astrid Raffinpeyloz said in a news release.
New building codes required the installation of a fire alarm system. New lights and windows were purchased to lower energy bills.
The new campus is about a quarter mile east of the old VHOCC building.
“We’re still on the same corridor, so people will find us easily,” Raffinpeyloz said after the groundbreaking.
VHOCC’s mission is to “provide physical, emotional and spiritual support to terminally ill patients and their families with free around the clock registered nursing availability and trained volunteers.”
Crumb, a registered nurse who founded VHOCC at the dawn of the hospice movement, was the face of the Port Angeles nonprofit for more than 40 years. She earned national awards and always insisted on offering free hospice care.
Crumb died of complications of congestive heart disease Dec. 19. She was 92.
Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County moved from Crumb’s house near Fifth and Peabody Streets into its current Eighth Street location in 1992.
“We have come a long way,” Raffinpeyloz said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@ peninsuladailynews.com.
