PORT ANGELES — Coast Guard Capt. William Peterson wielded a large pair of scissors Thursday afternoon and, joined by two others, cut through a thick red ribbon to celebrate a new cutter support building at Group/Air Station Port Angeles.
With Walt Dalrymple, vice president of Aldergrove Construction, and Frank Madison, a liaison between the Coast Guard and the construction company, Peterson feted one of the newest additions to the Ediz Hook station.
The one-story, 5,000-square-foot building houses offices for the 87-foot cutter Wahoo and is the current site of the station’s supply department.
The Wahoo crew members actually moved into the building in November. Before, they squeezed into other available space on the station or stayed aboard the cutter, said Peterson, Group Port Angeles commanding officer.
The new building, plus a new pier home to vessels with small boat Station Port Angeles, are part of about $4.5 million in additions and upgrades to the Port Angeles command in the past two years, all done by the work of local contractors, Peterson said.
VIP tours given
Business and civic leaders, city council members from Sequim and Port Angeles, Clallam County’s three commissioners and Coast Guard auxiliarists toured the additions in the Thursday morning drizzle.
The new pier, which was added in January, extends dock space at the facility’s “T” pier that already houses the Wahoo, its sister cutter Adelie, also 87 feet, the 110-foot cutter Cuttyhunk, and small boats for Station Port Angeles, which was commissioned in September.