Third Avenue may be needed for larger facility in Twisp
By Ann McCreary
Preliminary plans for a new civic building in Twisp propose extending the building into a portion of Third Avenue next to the current Town Hall and closing the street to vehicles.
In addition to providing space for Twisp’s administrative offices and police department, the civic building would serve as an emergency operations center for the entire valley in the event of an disaster.
In order to meet those differing needs, the building would need to be larger than the lot on which Town Hall sits, said Hans Smith, a Twisp Town Council member who serves on a committee that is planning the new facility.
Smith provided an update to the Town Council last week after meeting with architects hired to design the building, as well as representatives of Aero Methow Rescue Service, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office and the Okanogan Public Utility District.
Emergency responders are involved in helping plan the building because the emergency operations center “is a major component … and a critical need,” Smith said.
“After the fires [of 2014 and 2015] everyone in the business of emergency response recognized how we can better coordinate our efforts,” Smith said.
After analyzing the space required by the town and an emergency operations center, the planning committee determined that a new building would need to be 8,000 square feet. However, the lot on which Town Hall sits is only about 6,300 square feet, according to town estimates. Twisp was having the lot surveyed Monday.
After puzzling about “how to get 8,000 square feet on the lot,” the committee came up with the idea of vacating Third Avenue between Glover and Lincoln streets to allow the building to extend beyond the lot boundaries.
A portion of the street would remain open to pedestrian and bike traffic and provide a fire lane, Smith said.
Tying to other plans
Twisp is currently involved in an economic revitalization project that proposes changes to the downtown area to attract more pedestrians and consumers and encourage economic development and tourism.
Creating a pedestrian-only area on that portion of Third Avenue could tie into the plans for downtown revitalization, Smith said.
Preliminary ideas for the revitalization include prominent archways at intersections leading to the downtown area, wide sidewalks, pedestrian malls, landscaping, and a traffic roundabout on Highway 20 near Glover Street.
The civic building planning committee plans to obtain schematic drawings of the proposed building and the changes to Third Avenue and hold a community meeting in November to get public comment on the idea, Smith said.
“I’m anxious to get to the public feedback phase,” he said.
When needed, an emergency operations center would be set up in the Twisp Council chambers in the new building. The new council chambers would be designed to seat up to 50 people, considerably larger than the council meeting room in Town Hall.
The new facility would also include police department offices designed to allow for better processing of evidence and separation of suspects from the rest of the facility.
Police Chief Paul Budrow said that in the current Town Hall building, people in police custody who need to use a restroom must be escorted through town administrative offices.
Plans call for razing the current Town Hall building, which is plagued with structural and functional deficiencies, including cracked walls, inadequate fire and security features, poor ventilation and water damage.
Twisp has been allocated $970,000 in state funds for the civic building project. Part of the overall project involves building a new public works shop on Cottonwood Street to replace a shop that adjoins Town Hall.
The town has hired Architects West Inc. of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to design the buildings. The total project, from design through construction, is expected to cost $2.7 million.
“This is something we’re going to have to watch every step of the way,” said Mayor Soo Ing-Moody. “We’ve not had anything of this magnitude as a town, ever.”
