PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Public Utility District awarded a $1.38 million bid to Drury Construction to convert the vacant Costco Wholesale building in Carlsborg into a centralized storage facility.

All nine bids came in less than an architect’s estimate in excess of $1.6 million.

The Drury Construction bid includes $1,104,000 for general contract work, plus alternate bids totaling $272,300. The grand total is $1,376,300, plus Washington sales tax.

“All the bids were very close,” said Dennis Shaw, PUD general superintendent.

“For this type of a project, and with that many bids, we were very pleased at the response.”

Drury Construction of Poulsbo is a “good, solid contractor,” Shaw said, with subcontractors in Clallam County.

The PUD commissioners voted 3-0 to award the bid.

A 90-day construction schedule will begin after the PUD issues a notice to proceed, likely within the next two weeks, said general manager Doug Nass.

Bought for $3.8 million

The old Costco building is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and Hooker Road. The PUD agreed to purchase the 14-acre site and its 72,000-square-foot building for $3.8 million last summer.

Money to pay for the site and to convert the building comes from a 20-year, $8.65 million bond for capital projects approved in April 2008.

Customer rates will not be affected by the project, PUD spokesman Jeff Beaman said.

Costco closed the old warehouse in August 2006 and opened its 143,000-square-foot location at 955 W. Washington St. in Sequim.

New rate schedule

The majority of the PUD’s 30,000 customers won’t notice the new electrical rate schedule approved by the commission Monday.

The district is reclassifying 1.5 percent of its customers, all of which are large commercial customers, to account for actual usage rather than load potential.

Schools, for example, were paying the same rate under the old schedule, regardless of their size.

“You’re trying to set a rate that’s equitable for both of those entities,” said Joshua Bunch, PUD treasurer-controller.

“One uses quite a bit of energy and uses it differently than the other one. So to set one rate for all of those customers is difficult.”

After the PUD raised its rates in May 2008, it discovered inequities in what some large customers were paying.

That launched an effort to review all the accounts and correct misalignments that occurred over time, Beaman explained.

Changes to the rate schedule will not affect residential customers or small businesses, Beaman added.

Seventeen large industrial customers will see rate increases by a maximum of 8 percent.

Most commercial customers affected by the new schedule will see a slight decrease in their rates.

“It’s revenue-neutral,” Bunch said.

Commissioners Hugh Haffner and Will Purser voted to approve the resolution. Commissioner Ted Simpson voted no.

Simpson expressed some concern about changing the commercial designation, because PUDs must report commercial usage rates to the state beginning next year.

The previous customer classifications were residential, commercial, large power, municipal pumping and schools.

The new customer classifications are:

• Residential.

• Small general service: less than 50 kilowatt-hours.

• Medium general service: more than 50 kilowatt-hours.

• Large general service: more than 300 kilowatt-hours.

• Large industrial: more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours.

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.