PORT ANGELES — The U.S. Border Patrol needs a new North Olympic Peninsula headquarters large enough to double the number of agents from 25 to 50, and plans to make an offer for the Eagles lodge building.
The Border Patrol’s relocation, from its cramped downtown quarters at the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building to the building that now houses the Fraternal Order of Eagles at 110 Penn St., was the topic of a Border Patrol open house July 27 at the Red Lion Hotel.
The new staffing numbers were contained in a legal notice advertising the meeting.
The notice was published in the Peninsula Daily News the day of the meeting.
“We would like to build at that facility,” said Charles Parsons, environmental program manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under which the Border Patrol operates. “That is our preferred alternative.”
CBP has issued a letter of intent to make an offer for the Eagles building and the 3.4 acre-site it sits on, Pili Meyer, the listing agent, said.
The listing price of the Eagles property was $1.99 million May 30.
“I expect to hear by the end of the month on an offer, should they choose to make one,” said Meyer, associate broker at Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty in Port Angeles.
Construction on the Eagles building would begin about nine months after the property is purchased, CBP spokeswoman Jenny L. Burke said Thursday, adding that $8 million has been budgeted for the project.
The building likely would be remodelled, not razed, Parsons said.
Environmental assessment
Parsons is conducting an environmental assessment of the Eagles building that he expects to be ready for public review “in the next couple of months,” he said Thursday.
The Border Patrol has a staff of 25 agents who work out of the federal building in space intended for four, the legal notice said.
“Overcrowded conditions do not allow the agents to effectively and safely operate in accordance with the USBP mission,” the notice said.
The agency, which patrols areas between ports of international entry and staffs the Port Angeles ferry terminal, “needs a new station that will accommodate an overall station staff level of 50 agents,” the notice said.
In 2006, four agents worked in the Port Angeles office, covering both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
By April 2009, the staff had increased to 24.
Parsons and Eagles Aerie member Kevin Wheeler, who also attended the July 27 meeting, said most participants at the meeting appeared to favor the relocation plan.
It was attended by about 40 people, Parsons said.
Wheeler said most were not Eagles members.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement — or ICE — which is responsible for investigating immigration violations, is the other Homeland Security agency in the federal building that also will be moving.
ICE also to seek new quarters
ICE will begin looking for new quarters later this fall and expects to move by next summer, said Ross Buffington of the General Services Administration.
The agency wants to lease about 4,000 square feet of office space and five parking slots.
“The purchase of lease space for ICE is not connected to what the CBP folks are doing,” Buffington said.
The deadline for public comments on the plan to relocate the Border Patrol headquarters is Aug. 20, but there will be more opportunities for citizens to have their say as the plan progresses, Parsons said.
But opposition is already stirring.
Stop the Checkpoints
Lori Danks, coordinator of the group, Stop the Checkpoints, urged opponents to e-mail and write letters to Parsons by Aug. 20 in an e-mail that was also sent Wednesday to the PDN.
Danks did not return calls for comment Thursday.
The e-mail included a flier urging, “Protect Our Neighborhood.”
“No Border Patrol Station next to our Homes!” it said.
Danks urged “Stop the Checkpointers” to post the flier “everywhere.”
It was distributed in the Eagles club neighborhood by residents who live near the building, according to the e-mail.
It warns of lower property values, razor-wire fences, constant traffic, noise, sirens and “holding of prisoners near us.”
“This will NOT beautify our area,” the flier said.
Danks refers in the e-mail to a meeting at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Port Angeles library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
“We’ll plan further action,” she said.
Meyer said she did not believe the project would lower property values and added that the building would look better than it does now after it’s remodeled.
Large lighting fixtures that could illuminate the property also might be hooded to reduce glare, like they are at area grocery-store parking lots, she said.
Two holding cells
The new facility would have two holding cells, the same as the present facility, CBP spokesman Doy Noblitt said in an earlier interview.
CBP also had considered a 22-acre grassy, vacant parcel at the northwest corner of Edgewood and Critchfield roads just west of William Fairchild International Airport for its new headquarters, Burke said in an earlier interview.
But CBP has never contacted listing agent and Realtor Kelly Johnson of Windermere Real Estate/Port Angeles, Johnson said Thursday.
With Eagles membership dropping from a high of about 3,000 several years ago, when an annex was added, to today’s 900, the Aerie is anxious to sell its property, Wheeler said Thursday.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
