SOUTH BEND — The Pacific County Commission voted unanimously to acquire a South Bend building for $2.5 million during a meeting on Tuesday, May 13. As part of the snatch-up, the county will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next four years.

There had been rumblings for months about a potential deal between the county and Harbor Rock for a building at 307 Robert Bush Drive in South Bend, which is next to Dollar General and houses Thorbeckes Athletics Club and the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.

A public records request regarding the building acquisition submitted on March 18 was denied because the documents sought information related “to a deliberative process.”

According to the purchase and sale agreement provided for the May 13 meeting, the county will hand over a down payment of $500,000 at closing on July 1. Beginning in 2026, the county will pay $500,000 on May 1 each year with 4% annual interest, with the final payment scheduled for May 1, 2029.

According to several sources with some knowledge of the situation, the county is considering potentially merging the Department of Public Works and Department of Community Development into one location, among other departmental moves.

“DSHS has [over two years] left on their leases and we want to give Thorbeckes time to figure out what they are doing [as well],” Commissioner Lisa Olsen stated.

Separate project shelved

The development comes just over a week after it was learned that a massive remodel project at the Pacific County Courthouse and Pacific County Public Safety Building has been stalled. The project had been several years in the making and was previously estimated to cost approximately $750,000.

The project, which had previously been assigned to an engineer before the firm fell into disarray following the death of its top engineer, was going to involve an entrance to the buildings that would process visitors and then allow them to seamlessly flow to either the courthouse or public safety building.

At the moment, all visitors have one way in and one way out. They enter the courthouse, get processed through security, and then can move on. This has been overly cumbersome for individuals needing to get into the public safety building, who have to go into one building, get processed and then get escorted back over.

The process has also been slow-moving for individuals needing to use the elevator to get to the upper level of the courthouse. They, too, have to be processed and then escorted to the public safety building, use the elevator to the second floor, where a security guard has to unlock a door, and then cross over to the courthouse via the catwalk.

Undersheriff Mike Ray suggested making it so the guards could buzz people through the door at the push of a button instead of having to escort them all the way up. The county is looking to set up a monitor at the guard station so they can see surveillance footage in real time from all over the courthouse grounds.

Another big project outlined in the original plans was upgrading the courthouse bathrooms, which currently do not meet Americans with Disability Act requirements.

During a workshop between courthouse officials and county commissioners on May 5, Pacific County General Administration Chief Administrative Officer Paul Plakinger disclosed the county had spent all the allotted funds.

Pacific County had stowed away millions of dollars it had received through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provided funding to help the economy recover from the pandemic. Agencies had until late last year to allocate the funding and had until 2026 to use it up.

ARPA funds spent

Under the new presidential administration, there were concerns that the federal government would demand any unused funding back.

“We had, as of last year, at the end of the year, over $3.7 million left in unspent ARPA money that was spent out in its entirety to really offset mostly public safety salaries and benefits,” Plakinger said.

Approximately $672,000 worth of new sheriff’s office patrol vehicles, including six new Dodge Durangos and two new Dodge Ram trucks, were also among the spending.

Pacific County Judge Donald J. Richter posed the question: What does this mean?

Plakinger replied that all the money that could have been used for the project was gone.

The situation is particularly serious when it comes to safety because the courthouse failed its last security audit badly. So miserable was it that the security auditor could not even conduct an actual assessment and instead gave officials a starting point.

Many of the auditor’s suggestions have been implemented, including security officer coverage during the hours of operation.

In the meantime, officials are looking at grant options to complete the courthouse upgrades, including the viability of placing an independent structure between the buildings to circumvent historical building requirements. These requirements often resulted in a project costing upwards of three times what it would otherwise.

The project, which was expected to cost $750,000 just a few years ago, would likely be in the ballpark of $2.25 million in 2025.