Sequim City Hall

The new City Hall

They had the formal ground breaking for Sequim’s new City Hall last week. You know the event: Five or six people lined up wearing hard hats and wielding shovels, throwing a little dirt around. The real work has already begun; in April I posted the demolition of the old building, here. And before the shovel ceremony there were surveyors and others getting the work underway.

These days the progress is subtle; behind a cyclone fence it’s even more masked. There are forms being built for foundations here. Once the foundation is poured and set things begin to rise above ground. From time to time I’ll drop by the site to show you how things are going.

Bye, bye, City Hall

Slightly over two years ago I posted a picture of Sequim City Hall here. On Monday, this is what it looked like as it was being torn down. Other buildings, further down the street, are also being razed as part of the same project.

By the middle of next year Sequim will have a new $15 million City Hall that will house administrative offices and the police department. The old City Hall, built in 1973, was too small to accommodate both the police and functions of a growing city. The new building’s plaza will become the home of the Sequim Farmers Market.

I’d never seen the Sequim City Hall and wondered where it was and what it looked like. Once I found it I was immediately reminded that Sequim is a small town. The building is as small as it looks. It was built in 1973 for an estimated cost of $110,000. And its size answered my question of why the Police Department is located in offices in a shopping center. But I still wonder why there’s a light pole, below. It seems whimsical and reminds me of a barber shop.