Sumner is storing files in its women’s restrooms. $35M building would make more room
A building where some city of Sumner employees work has become so cramped that they use the women’s restroom to store paperwork and custodial supplies, a public works employee said.
The building is at 4711 142nd Ave. E. It is where people like John Wells, public works field supervisor, meet and do work for the city. Wells said they started working in the building about 20 years ago.
“When we first moved in it was just about at capacity,” Wells said. “As things have grown here in Sumner, the need for more equipment, more employees — we’ve just overgrown.”
Wells said those who work under the city’s parks department used to meet at the building, but they eventually had to move someplace else to make space for equipment such as a de-icer machine, among other things.
“We’re just running out of space,” Wells said.
The city is considering building a new operations facility a couple blocks away from the current building to house all employees who work under the public works and parks departments as well as their equipment.
Construction for the new facility is expected to occur between spring 2022 and summer 2023. The project will cost about $35 to 40 million and will be city-funded, city spokesperson Carmen Palmer said.
The city bought the land for the new facility in winter 2020 and held an open house for the public in spring and fall 2021.
The new facility will be near 142nd Avenue East and 29th Street East, next to Earls Furniture Store.
“We’ve been designing it with the future in mind,” Wells said.
The facility will give the employees a modern-looking building and more room for vehicles and office spaces. Palmer said the facility will also have an area to store equipment such as sand and gravel.
Wells said the facility can also be used as a meeting place for training or as an emergency area for people if a flood or storm was to occur.
“We wanted to design it and build it so it could be utilized for many things by many people,” Wells said.
Palmer said the current building sits between a river and a road, so it is impossible to expand the building. There is some space south of the building, but it is a shoreline buffer, which protects the river by filtering pollutants.
A bigger and newer building will benefit residents, Palmer said.
“This is the hub that drives so many of the services all of us rely on every day whether we’re driving on a road, using the water or flushing the toilet,” Palmer said.
This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
