The front steps to Tenino City Hall.
The prospect of a comprehensive renovation and restoration of Tenino City Hall moved a step closer to fruition on Monday when state Reps. Steve Tharinger and Richard DeBolt included a $515,000 line item in the proposed capital budget for the upcoming biennium.
Tharinger chairs the House Capital Budget Committee and DeBolt is the ranking minority member. Tenino Mayor Wayne Fournier asked DeBolt, R-Chehalis, to include funding for city hall, which was built nearly a century ago and is in dire need of structural repairs, a new roof and numerous technological upgrades.
Should the massive renovation effort go forward, Fournier said would be the largest single capital facility project undertaken by Tenino during his lifetime.
“It was originally built out of sandstone and hasn’t really been taken care of to the best extent possible,” Fournier said. “Sandstone isn’t just a normal building material. It’s porous and requires specialized grout and other materials. We want to renovate it and make sure we not only have room for upgrades, but that it continues to be a useable building.”
Tenino city officials halted repairs to the roof last November after construction workers found evidence of structural damage, much of which wasn’t visible without further demolition of the rotting beams. Electrical and plumbing infrastructure that is well past its prime and gaps in the mortar holding the slabs of sandstone together have long raised concerns within the the building, which sits on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Tenino City Council authorized the city to work with engineering firm Gibbs & Olson in Longview to take inventory of the building and the repairs needed for it to remain a viable hub for city business. Fournier said that inspection produced the dollar amount requested of the state.
Fournier added that it’s still too early in the process to put a timeframe on the renovation effort. Even if the funding request remains in the final capital budget passed later this year by both chambers of the state legislature, the city plans to work with architects versed in historic building preservation during the design phase.
“We’re not going to be running into this,” Fournier said. “We’re going to take it slow and involve all the needed partners we have. “We’re really happy with where we’re at right now in the process, and we would be working to make sure everything was kept to historic standards.”
Funding for Tenino projects included in the draft capital budget also includes $618,000 for the Southwest Washington Regional Agricultural Business and Innovation Park.
That money is a re-appropriation from the 2017-2019 capital budget that Fournier said the city is ready to use this biennium. Ground will be broken on the 20-acre lot near the wastewater treatment facility sometime this spring, with the state funds used to put in utilities and other infrastructure. The goal, according to Fournier, is to create an agriculture-based facility to support local farms from the planting process to packaging and selling crops.
Rochester is also in line to receive a substantial cash infusion from the state, in the form of $196,000 earmarked for renovations to Swede Hall.
DeBolt said the application materials he received from representatives of Swede Hall indicated the money would be used to install new windows, complete roof repairs and structural updates, and weatherize the building.
Other South Thurston County funding requests granted in the draft budget are $31,000 for upgrades to the Boys and Girls Club of Thurston County building in Rochester and $16,000 for the Forestry Museum in Tenino.
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Editor’s note: Rep. Richard DeBolt is an employee of Lafromboise Communications, Inc., the parent company of The Chronicle.
