Hizzoner takes the helm to help demolish old fire hall

Published 6:36 am Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Sequim Mayor Walt Schubert got to take the first bite out of Sequim’s former fire hall before it was demolished Tuesday.

“It was like being a kid playing with a Tonka toy,” he said after his three-minute stint around 8:45 a.m.

“It gives a person a real appreciation for an operator of that equipment.”

A member of the George Dickinson Construction crew gave the mayor rudimentary instructions on handling an excavator.

Tearing down the city’s building at 144 W. Cedar St., at a cost of $33,820, puts Sequim a little closer to its goal of constructing a new City Hall.

But Schubert said he and the rest of the City Council are still weighing where to put it: on Cedar Street, at the Water Reuse Demonstration Site off North Blake Avenue or at a future “urban village” development at South Sequim Avenue and U.S. Highway 101.

The city will also need to find $10 million in financing – which could come from a bond election. The City Council has scheduled a study session on financing options for 9 a.m. April 18 in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.