Yacolt is opening the new year in a new municipal home.
While some remodeling is going on and other enhancements are a couple of years away, Yacolt’s new town hall is open for business.
The two-story building at 202 W. Cushman St. was once a Masonic Lodge. It’s a significant upgrade from the former seat of town government. Built in 1908, when Yacolt residents voted 34-29 to incorporate, the former town hall once doubled as the Yacolt jail.
Town employees moved into the new location about three weeks ago, but the first official civic event in the new town hall was planned for this week, when Monday’s meeting of the town council was on the schedule.
Town officials hope to hold an open house so community members can get a look at the place.
The government office doesn’t bear much resemblance to the Masonic building, inside or out.
“It was a concrete block building that was built in the 1960s,” said Pete Roberts, Yacolt’s public works director. “There was no insulation.”
The remodel pretty much made a sandwich of the original concrete block structure. There is a wood-and-stone exterior over the old block wall. Inside, a new skin of Sheetrock replaces plywood paneling. And the building now is insulated inside and out.
The mid-December move gives the town a lot more room for operations, as well as events.
Roberts said he didn’t have room at his old desk to roll out a blueprint.
“I had to go into the council chambers and lay it out on their big table,” Roberts said.
“We have space, and it’s easier to assist the public,” said Crystal Bielec, the town’s customer service clerk.
“The meeting room is bigger than at the other place, so hopefully it can bring more people in to town hall meetings,” Bielec said. “The other was so small and crowded.”
There’s more room for storage in the new place, too.
“We had stored town records in the old jail cells,” Bielec said.
The old town jail had three regular cells and one for solitary confinement.
Town officials figure the jail hasn’t held a prisoner since the early 1970s, when Yacolt last had a town marshal (today the sheriff’s office provides service). But there still was some confusion.
“We have the big ‘sheriff’ sign on the side of the building, and people would come in looking for the sheriff,” Bielec said.
The old location did have a “town hall” sign in front. Still, Bielec said, visitors occasionally would pop their head through the door and ask, “Am I in the right place? Is this town hall?”
The old town hall was about 800 square feet; the new site is about 4,500 square feet on two floors, although the second floor doesn’t meet standards for handicap access. The town has applied for a grant that would fund construction of an elevator.
The new town hall has been rewired for things like the Internet.
Yacolt officials hope the new town hall can go beyond its municipal role and provide community space.
“We’ve always let the community use the council chamber room for meetings; this one will give them more capacity,” Town Clerk Lynne Oldham said.
A designated community meeting room is in the plans, but it’s down the road, Oldham said.
The building also has a generator that can provide emergency power if electricity to the town is cut off.
“People can come for heat and food,” Roberts said. “We don’t have a commercial kitchen, but people will be able to use microwaves. We also have propane heating to back up the heat pump.”
The price tag on the new city hall — both purchase and remodel — is around $500,000. It was funded by money in the town’s reserves, Oldham said.
The old town hall at 105 E. Yacolt Road might have a future as a museum.
