The Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis
Concrete details for Lewis County’s decade-long plan to upgrade, relocate and build new facilities for its various government departments may soon start to take shape — along with a price tag for the proposal that’s been months in the works.
“The Capital Facilities Plan is just that — it’s a plan that helps project into the future, maybe about to 10 years’ time of what the county’s needs might be in terms of facilities,” said Steve Walton, the county’s Central Services director.
Walton and other county leaders have spent months reviewing the county’s existing facilities, their state of repair and expectation of future needs. The county has been working with KMB Architects in Olympia to put together a plan, and the current draft is known as Option D. After some more tweaking with county planners, KMB will make a formal proposal to county commissioners, likely in April.
“Once we nail down all the last details, the idea is to bring this to the board for formal consideration,” county manager Erik Martin told commissioners Monday. “There will be a presentation by KMB to you as the board where you can ask questions.”
The overarching goal of the plan is to consolidate the county campus, bringing departments close to the Law and Justice Center and Historic Courthouse in Chehalis.
“This has been a goal and in the works for many years, to try to centralize county government into a location that is close,” Walton said. “If we can bring all the core functions of county government centrally localized, citizens don’t have to drive all over town trying to find different offices and buildings.”
Another key aspect of the plan will be the construction of a new juvenile detention center, as the current facility is in “dire need” of replacement. Planners have been working with department heads whose branches will be affected by the plan to get a sense of their needs.
It’s unclear how much the eventual plan will cost, and Walton said KMB will present a dollar figure in its proposal — though that will represent the “worst case,” maximum possible cost. With money tight, the county will be looking at every possible option to minimize expenses.
“We will look at all kinds of ways where we can trim the costs down,” Walton said. “So much of this is going to be, ‘Well what can we afford?’ The money drives so much of what county government does.”
Walton said he expects the county will need to take out a bond to pay for the project, and will work with the treasurer’s office and look at current debts before doing so.
“There’s some things that we’ll have to work through, perhaps some property purchases,” he said. “We’ll have to look at our financing, how we can fund the cost of this endeavor? It will be laid out in a timeline ultimately.”
The county had been operating under a previous Capital Facilities Plan that’s more than 10 years old, Walton said, but the economic downturn and changing needs meant that much of it was never implemented.
