PORT ANGELES — The Quileute Tribe has hired an owner’s representative to oversee the design and construction of a new school on higher ground.

Vanir Construction Management Inc., which has an office in Port Angeles, will assist the tribe in keeping the project on schedule, on budget and built to the tribe’s specifications.

“We look forward to the collaboration with Vanir,” the Quileute Tribal Council said in a joint statement.

“It is very important to us that the owner representative understand the dynamics of living on the Olympic Peninsula and no one understands that like our neighbors.”

Craig Fulton, Vanir project director and former Port Angeles public works director, will oversee the project with Port Angeles-based Senior Construction Manager Dan McNay and Project Manager Kristin Helberg.

“We are very excited, and really honored, to be be selected as the owner’s rep for this project,” Fulton said in a Tuesday interview.

“This is an exciting project for the tribe and their children and their elders.”

Last summer, the Quileute Tribe received a $44.1 million grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to move its 100-student tribal school from the tsunami- and storm-prone lower village in La Push to a state-of-the-art campus on a hill about 250 feet above sea level.

The new school is the first phase in the Quileute’s Move to Higher Ground, a multi-generational effort to relocate tribal facilities and housing to a recently-harvested, 278-acre tract about 2 miles southeast of La Push.

Vanir was hired as the owner’s representative for the school project Nov. 28.

“I’m really excited to have a firm the quality of Vanir on this team,” said Susan Devine, Move to Higher Ground project manager.

“Hiring the owner’s rep firm is a major milestone to making this happen.”

Local knowledge was “one of the top factors” for selection of an owner’s rep because unique conditions in La Push, Devine said.

Vanir also has experience working in remote sites and with school construction, she said.

“Vanir hit all of those things,” Devine said.

The owner’s rep was selected in a competitive bid process. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The next step is to hire a design-build contractor who will install infrastructure for school and raise the 60,950-square foot building.

Vanir will work collaboratively with the contractor to manage risks and solve problems while keeping the school the top priority, Devine said.

The new Quileute Tribal School will have room for 175 kindergarten-to-12th-grade students. It will meet the energy efficiency standards of the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol.

Once completed, the school will have a full-sized gymnasium, library, cafeteria, science and technology labs, language and cultural classrooms, performing arts stage, vocational shop for woodworking and natural grass athletic fields.

Officials hope to break ground on construction next summer and to open the facility in 2021.

Fulton said the West End’s environmental conditions like storms and heavy rain will be factored into the design and construction.

“The logistics of getting materials out there, storing materials out there until they’re ready and housing all the construction employees is going to be an interesting task that we need to work through,” Fulton said.

“This is not your straightforward construction project.”

Vanir Construction Management was heavily involved in the city of Port Angeles’ combined sewer overflow and waterfront improvement projects, two of the largest in the city’s history.

Fulton, who coordinated those projects for the city, said Vanir is “invested” in the Olympic Peninsula and committed to “this amazing project for the Quileute Tribe.”

“One of the great things is we are local,” Fulton said. “All of us live here.”

Local subcontractors also will be involved in the school design and construction.

“We’re using as much local talent as possible to move this project forward,” Fulton said.

Larry Burtness, the Quileute Tribe’s interim general manager, said local connections and relationships are important to the tribe.

“The tribal council, and the tribe in general, really needs to have that trust,” Burtness said.

Scientists predict that a magnitude-9.0 earthquake will re-occur at some point along the Cascadia Subduction Zone and send a 40-foot tsunami crashing into low-lying coastal areas like La Push. The last Cascadia megaquake and tsunami occurred on Jan. 26, 1700.

Winter storms also pose a risk for students at Quileute Tribal School, which is merely 20 feet above sea level a short distance from the surf.

“I’ve seen those waves pick up logs and toss them into the streets in La Push,” Fulton said.

“It’s amazing what those waves can do. And that’s just for a storm.”

Quileute Tribal School Superintendent Mark Jacobson said the school lost power during the Dec. 13-14 windstorms.

“Fortunately, our kitchen has a gas stove,” Jacobson said.

Students were served lunch at 10:45 a.m. Dec. 13 before they were sent home.

“The school is so much more than a school,” Devine said.

The recent storms served as a reminder that Quileute Tribal School is in a dangerous location, Devine said.

“We get these reminders all the time,” Devine said.

“We have got to stay on task. We have got to keep our eye on our mission and we can’t let anything stop us. We have to keep going.”

________

Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.