PORT HADLOCK — Workers worried about the May-June Hood Canal Bridge closure blocking their travel to off-Peninsula workplaces can take the telework test-drive at Washington State University Learning Center.

WSU extension’s director, Katherine Baril, said the college has joined Kitsap Regional Council to help Hood Canal Bridge-hopping commuters work closer to home, or at home, during the six to eight weeks that the state Department of Transportation replaces the floating bridge’s eastern half.

The Telework Pilot Project is recruiting Jefferson County organizations to participate in the program offered through April at WSU’s Hadlock extension, in the Shold Business Park at the corner of Rhody Drive — or state Highway 19 — and West Patison Street.

Work option

Baril hopes the program will remain a work option at WSU extension, which is contracted as Team Jefferson through county government to develop the local economy in any way possible.

“We’ve thought about making it full-time,” Baril said.

She envisions teleworking ¬­– or telecommuting — as an opportunity that could be extended to the general computer-using workforce in Jefferson County at a time when unpredictable gasoline prices can dramatically affect both employees and businesses.

She said that the telework center could become a 24-hour, seven-day operation that not only helps regional workers, but also those employed by companies elsewhere in the U.S., or even internationally.

Teleworking involves an employee replacing his or her regular workplace with an alternate location, and working via a computer instead of commuting.

That location could be home, but it also could be a centrally located telework center, with all the technology and communication devices of a modern office.

WSU Learning Center houses such a work setting, and has the fastest broadband fiber Internet access in the county, said Kris Raikes, the center’s technology coordinator.

The WSU system not only allows workers to move large amounts of data, but also allows worker-employer communications through video face-to-face, or monitor-to-monitor, teleconferencing.

“We’re at a point in time now when there is really no reason not to telework,” Raikes said, as he stood inside the Otter Room Apple computer lab at the center.

Vicky Clarke, Telework Pilot Project participant coordinator for the Bremerton-based Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council, said the state Department of Transportation Commute Trip Reduction program-funded project comes complete with a tool kit of “how to” information.

The tool kit includes best-practices advice, policy forms and templates covering the key aspects of setting up, using and evaluating a telework program on both sides of the bridge.

For more information, visit the Telework Pilot Project Web site, www.Kitsap RegionalCouncil.org/ telework.html, phone Clarke at 360-377-4900, or e-mail her at Vicky@KitsapRegional Council.org.

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Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.