County and Port Angeles move forward on seismically resilient joint public safety facility

Sheriff King said both the county and the city of Port Angeles have passed joint resolutions authorizing the county to go out to bid on a joint public safety facility that will house an emergency operations center (EOC) and PENCOM communications. "Alright. So the first, topic of discussion is the joint public safety facility. So that's our EOC and PENCOM joint partnership, with the city of Port Angeles to build a seismically tolerant, emergency operations and communication center," he told the advisory board.

The project is at "100% design now," King said, and the current budget sits "right around $22,300,000." He told the board the county and city each committed $3,000,000 and that a mix of federal and state grants plus a legislative appropriation supply the remainder; King said those local contributions helped secure an additional roughly $2,000,000 in state funds. He also said soft-cost contingencies of about $1.2 million are already in the estimate and that the design appears to be about $700,000 under budget on paper, giving roughly $2,000,000 in total contingency.

The location is immediately behind the airport department center on a 3.7-acre parcel the city and county purchased together approximately a year and a half ago, King said, and he emphasized the geology there—glacial till near the airport—means the site is relatively tolerant of a Cascadia-style earthquake. "It's built to specifically for these public safety needs and and and to survive a Cascadia subduction zone type event," he said. Proximity to the airport and nearby fairgrounds, King added, will help staging and logistics during large-scale responses.

King said bid-ready documents (Division 0, Division 1 and full specifications) are prepared and that the design team has already identified potential contractors who are likely to bid; the project team plans to require bidders to comply with grant terms and federally influenced procurement rules. He referred specifically to federal Buy America requirements in the procurement planning and said the county will include grant compliance language in the bid package and in contract monitoring. "...you're gonna have to comply with with all of the grant requirements," King said.

Board discussion touched briefly on structural versus equipment procurement; a board member asked whether the Build America/Buy America-type requirements applied only to structural materials or also to equipment such as radios and antennas. King answered, "All of the above."

No vote on contract awards occurred at the meeting; King said the councils already passed resolutions to permit bidding and that he expects the county commission to move a motion to proceed to bid. The board was given the project status and funding summary as the item closed.

Why it matters: the facility is intended as a hardened EOC and communications hub to support county and city emergency response in a major seismic event; the selected site and the funding package shape how quickly the building moves into construction and how much contingency is available for escalation in materials or scope.

The county will publish formal solicitation documents when it advertises the project to bidders; county staff and any owner's representative chosen for construction management will monitor compliance with grant conditions during construction.