PORT ANGELES — William Shore Memorial Pool now has land for its $12 million expansion and officials expect to break ground for the expansion next March.

The Clallam County Board of County Commissioners agreed on May 8 to transfer the property at 205 E. Fifth St., which currently houses the Horizon Center of Peninsula Behavioral Health (PBH), to William Shore Memorial Pool District.

As part of the deal, the pool will take on PBH’s lease. The pool will then pay to physically move the building to a site a few blocks away at 235 E. Eighth St. Steve Burke, William Shore Memorial Pool executive director, said that would happen within about two months.

“They’re going to jack it up onto wheels and drive it up Lincoln and down Eighth until they get to the new lot,” Burke said.

Burke said once the building is at the new location, the pool will transfer the title to PBH and continue work on its expansion.

Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones told commissioners the project has been in the works since about 2002. It was then that officials realized the only way for the pool to expand would be to go west onto the county-owned land.

The county has long leased the property to PBH at no cost and Jones said the lease was written into perpetuity.

Jones said the county was giving the pool the surplus land in exchange for the pool taking on the lease, which the pool and PBH have agreed will be terminated when the building is moved.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of collaboration on this and it’s taken quite awhile,” said Clallam County Commissioner Bill Peach, who serves on the pool board but said he stayed out of negotiations between the pool and PBH.

Burke said the pool could break ground for the expansion next March. He previously said construction could start this year, but said the design phase will take longer than he had thought.

“As the plans develop, they get a better idea of how long it’s going to take,” he said. “There’s what I hope for and there’s reality.”

The new pool will have a children’s splash and play area, new locker rooms, a warm-water therapy pool and other amenities.

Built in 1961, the pool is in need of about $2 million in repairs and the 15,000-square-foot facility has become overcrowded with more than 100,000 annual visits.

The state Legislature approved $1.5 million in funding for the expansion as part of its supplemental capital budget in March.

Voters overwhelmingly supported William Shore Memorial Pool District’s measure to expand its bond capacity during the November election, which helped lawmakers secure the funding.

Burke said the state funding would allow the pool to get a better bond rating.

The debt load increase, which expanded the district’s debt capacity by $3.5 million up to $10 million, gave the green light to a long-planned, 10,000-square-foot expansion and remodeling of the pool at 225 E. Fifth St.

Burke said the next major milestone in the project will be to select a contractor on June 7.

The pool has received three proposals so far, he said, one of which is from a local contractor. Burke said the pool will work with the contractor during the designing phase of the expansion and that the pool will determine the most-qualified general contractor.

For this project, the price of the proposal is just one factor, he said. The pool will also consider a contractor’s qualifications, expertise in this type of project and where the contractor is located.

“We can actually rank someone higher if they are located closer to the project than further away,” he said.

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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.