CORRECTION: In the print version of this article, published April 11, it was incorrectly stated the Public Works Center will be located at 22405 Washington 410, south of 96th Street East, due to outdated information on the city of Bonney Lake’s website. The new Public Works Center will be located at the Peaking Storage Tank site located at 21719 96th Street East, north of 96th St. The online article has been updated.
The Bonney Lake City Council is rearing to start designing its new Public Works Center.
During the March 3 meeting, the council met with ARC Architects to discuss a contract for finalizing the design of the new Public Works Center, which will be moving from its current location on Bonney Lake Boulevard to 21719 96th Street East, north of 96th and east of the Home Depot.
Rex Bond, a principal with ARC and who has been working with Bonney Lake on planning the new Public Works Center for the last 10 years, said his team is ready to go.
“I think it’s been a really good journey. The need for the Public Works facility has not gone away — in fact, it’s grown,” he said to the council, alluding to the fact that Bonney Lake has grown by thousands of people since the start of the project. “We’re ready to lift off.”
City Administrator Don Morrison said the new facility design will be “fairly simply, yet attractive,” with economical tilt up concrete buildings. Some of the new features include covered and heated shops for city facilities employees like water, sewer and stormwater, covered equipment storage, and a clean-off room.
”Pretty much every design element is an improvement,” Morrison said. “The existing shops are an accumulation and hodge-podge of old buildings – not the result of planning.”
While the Public Works Building will be off the highway, access will initially be only from 96th St., with the possibility of adding access off 214th St. in the future, Morrison added.
The design contact, which also includes engineering work and managing construction bigs and construction administration, comes in at about $1.4 million — approximately $300,000 less than what was originally expected, since the city is not certain whether SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) will require any road improvements to 96th St.
The city expects site development and construction of the Public Works Building to be around $20.4 million.
“Other soft costs and offsite improvements/SEPA mitigation is still TBD, but not expected to exceed the $24 million available for the project,” Morrison said. “It would be nice if any new equipment and furnishings needed could also come out of this budget. If not, it would need to be provided for in the 2020 mid-biennial budget amendment.”
After this design contract is brought to and likely approved by the City Council on Tuesday, March 10, Bond estimates the new Public Works Center to be open by spring or summer of 2020. “I would say we would be able to get this project design and out to bid in a year,” he said. “And I think construction would be a year.”
The new Public Works Center will come with covered equipment, so multi-thousand dollar machines and vehicles don’t have to sit outside. Additionally, security around the new building will also be improved. Photo by Ray Still
