About a year and a half after crews broke ground, county staff gathered this week to celebrate the opening of downtown Chehalis’ newest building.
“If everyone can try to remember back about a year and a half ago what this building used to look like, then the building down the way as well,” Lewis County Facilities Administrator Alex Murray said. “And when you think about what it used to look like, and what it looks like today, it’s a huge difference.
Officials gathered Wednesday to officially open Lewis County’s newest building, which will house Lewis County’s Community Development offices and office for the Environmental, Health and Information Technology departments. The new facility is located at 125 NW Chehalis Ave. in downtown Chehalis.
Murray said the project is unique, as the county mainly utilized in-house labor to construct the building. Retrofitting an old structure also proved challenging, he said, as the age of the building and the ground soil created obstacles.
“We did all of the work in-house to save money and to be able to make sure that we got what we wanted out of it,” Murray said.
According to Lewis County officials, the building served as a piece of a broader vision to streamline Lewis County’s government.
“Like with anything, every project begins with a vision,” Lewis County Commissioner Scott Brummer said Wednesday. “It requires a vision from people who see where they want to go, and then figure out a way to get there.”
The vision, Brummer said, includes creating new efficiency in the operations of county government, both for staff and residents. The new building, located steps from the Lewis County courthouse and other county offices, will increase communication and collaboration between county staff.
“That’s vital, it’s huge. This project is a big step forward in that direction,” Brummer said.
The building has other benefits, Brummer said, which include allowing residents to visit one centralized campus to fulfill their needs.
“That’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m excited that we get to officially open our community development and environmental health buildings and get this going,” Brummer said. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s taken quite a few years to see the vision fulfilled, but that’s what we do today, is fulfill that mission.”
According to Mindy Brooks, Lewis County’s director of community development, the new building will also benefit residents looking to conduct business with the county.
For years, Brooks said, the department was housed in a building miles away from Lewis County Courthouse near Yard Birds.
“And often, people would come in, and they actually didn’t need to be in our office because they were looking for a government building, and that’s where they ended up, but that was not the right place,” Brooks said. “We’re very excited to be right here so that when someone comes in and they actually need to go to the assessor’s office, I can just point across the street and say ‘Right over there is actually where you need to be.’”
According to Brooks, Community Development has also applied for a grant that could fund software upgrades that would further streamline internal processes.
Last year, Lewis County Public Works held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new building, located at 57 W. Main St. in Chehalis, which houses the department’s teams under one roof.
