PORT ANGELES — Peninsula Behavioral Health’s Horizon Center is on blocks and is nearly ready for its move Thursday to Eighth Street, making room for the $16.5 million expansion of William Shore Memorial Pool.
Pool Director Steve Burke said the move will start at 8 a.m. Thursday and could take up to six hours as the building — currently located at the corner of Lincoln Street and Fifth Street — makes its way east on fifth, south on Chase and west onto Eighth Street.
D.B. Davis and Jeff Monroe will move the building from 205 E. Fifth St. to 223 E. Eighth St.
Burke said the move could be as short as two hours “if everything goes as planned.” Crews from Wave Broadband and CenturyLink will lift lines as the building passes.
“This is the culmination of two and a half years of finding a new home for the Horizon Center building, design work, negotiating and getting use agreements in place between the Peninsula Behavioral Health, Clallam County and the Pool District,” Burke said in a statement. “This is a big first step in our overall expansion project.”
Port Angeles Police Department Cpl. Clay Rife said officers will provide traffic control when the building gets to Eighth Street.
Wendy Sisk, CEO of Peninsula Behavioral Health, said the hope is that once the building is moved it will take no more than 30 days to reopen. It has been closed since April 19 to prepare for the move.
“We’re hoping to be back in there by mid-June,” Sisk said. “But, my experience with construction tells me that you just never know.”
The Horizon Center is an intensive day support program that provides life skills training and meals on weekdays.
“We think it’s going to be fun to see that building driving down the road,” Sisk said. “They told us we can leave everything inside. They move it so slow and carefully that everything should be intact.”
Sisk said she is excited that the facility will be closer to PBH’s main campus on Eighth Street and that she is excited PBH is a part of the ongoing development on Eighth Street.
The expansion of the pool and move of the Horizon Center is facilitated by an agreement last year that involved the county transferring the property at 205 E. Fifth St. to the pool district.
After the Horizon Center is moved Thursday, the pool district has agreed to transfer the building to Peninsula Behavioral Health.
The removal of the building will make room for the 10,000-square-foot expansion of the pool.
The last chance to swim at the pool before the anticipated 10-month closure will be May 24.
It isn’t yet clear when the pool will reopen. No date has been set, but Burke has said he hopes the pool will reopen sometime in February.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
