PORT ANGELES — Clallam County’s joint public safety facility with the city of Port Angeles has been cut down by about one third, leaving a fully funded cost estimate of about $22 million.
If all steps go as planned, requests for proposals will be sent out by the end of August and the facility will be completed between the end of 2026 and the second quarter of 2027.
The joint public safety facility, which will be located near Fairchild International Airport, will house the county’s emergency operations center and the 911 dispatch center.
Last August, the city and county received a cost estimate of about $30 million for the 17,700-square-foot facility. With only a little more than $14 million of secured funding, the elected officials directed staff to cut costs to about $20 million. The remaining gap was closed after the city and county each identified an additional $3 million for the project.
Since then, the design team has developed a 60 percent completed design that reduced redundancies, reserved some items for future development and changed some material to reduce costs.
“We’ve been on quite the journey,” said Michael Marcus, architect with Hennebery Eddy Architects. “Cutting $10 million in the project is no easy task.”
In the updated designs, circulation is improved, both departments share a common lobby, the mechanical systems are centralized and the mechanical mezzanine is removed, said Wendy Head, project manager for the design and construction company OAC Services, Inc.
The building footprint also has been reduced and moved east, leaving the west side of the land open for future development.
That could include a radio frequency antenna, a solar microgrid, additional parking and a second backup generator.
If costs come in under estimate, some potential features that could be added back include potable water storage tanks, perimeter fencing, ballistic-related walls and a 6,000-gallon ballistic-rated fuel tank for the generator, Head said.
The reduced facility is projected to cost between $20.6 million and $20.8 million. Buffer room has been built into the estimates to account for potential cost increases. Additional funds also have been identified, bringing total funding up to $22.3158 million.
The city and county have together allocated $8 million for this project, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded a $3 million grant , the state Department of Commerce (DOC) has awarded two grants that total about $7.5 million, $2 million is dedicated from the 911 reserves and the state Legislature has allocated $2 million for the project.
The two DOC grants will expire June 30, 2027. The FEMA grant, whose dollars are earmarked for construction costs, will expire in April 2026 unless the organization grants a future six-month extension. The city and county also have requested a change of scope that would allow the grant to be used for predesign, design and preconstruction costs.
If project costs exceed the buffer room that has been built into the estimates, county administrator Todd Mielke said the city and county could reconvene to discuss taking on some debt in order to complete the project.
“No one wants to go there,” he said. “But there are sources with extremely low interest rates that we can tap into.”
Next steps for the project include solidifying soft cost estimates, bringing the design from 60 percent to 100 percent complete, going out to bid and starting construction for the facility.
If all the pieces fall into place, winning bids may be selected in October, ground will be broken in November and the final project will be completed sometime between December 2026 and the second quarter of 2027.
“The biggest challenge on the deadline is the FEMA grant,” Mielke said, noting that, if nothing changes, that money must be utilized for construction costs by April 30, 2026. “That’s really the only thing driving the work schedule.”
To discuss the final designs and make the decision about releasing bid documents, Mielke said the county commissioners and city council members likely will convene again in late August.
“That is our go, no-go decision,” Mielke said.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
