Vernonia's voice., October 25, 2011, Page 12, Image 12

in other words
12 2011
The New WOEC HQ Building: The Complete Story
october25
of property and construction of a new
building. The Gordon Smith property was
purchased and the architectural design
sent out for construction bids.
The silver lining for building
during an economic downturn actual ended
with a huge cost savings for the members
of the Co-op. The same building project
that would have cost $4.8 million from
an earlier bid was now going to be able
to be built for $3.2 million. Construction
bids were sent out and three responses
were received by the deadline, one from
Portland, one from Hillsboro, and one
from Banks. We had determined from the
beginning that the project would be done
with as much local labor, products, goods,
and services as possible. We were thrilled
with the results that the low bid came from
Five Star Builders in Banks, the most local
of the bids. It also turned out that about
a third of their employees, including a
managing partner are members of WOEC.
They were selected as the contractor with
a bid over $900,000 less than the highest
bid and over $500,000 less than the second
lowest bid.
Five Star stayed true to our request
and hired additional people from Vernonia,
(one of which continues to be employed
by Five Star), bought as many items as
possible locally even purchasing tires for
their vehicles from the hardware store.
One of the best stories of staying local was
when we had to change from metal siding
on the truck bays and warehouse to wood
due to an increase of 44% in metal prices.
Five Star came up with the idea and plan to
purchase a small mill from Eastern Oregon,
bring it over here and using trees from one
of the Co-op members, cut the majority of
the wood used in the project themselves.
Their managing partner Clint Jackson, a
Co-op member, did the milling--making
it local trees, cut by a local member, used
in the siding of the building which saved
over $44,000. The additional win was the
fact we got a better looking building that
is also considered more energy efficient,
green qualifying--all for a lot less money.
Another good local story came
when we received three bids, two from
Vernonia and one from Forest Grove, for
all of the cabinets and countertop work.
The winning bid went to Alan MacComb
and his sons who live and have a shop two
doors down from our old building. Their
shop, located across the street from the
Vernonia Substation, had seven feet of
water in it during the flood. They were
not only the low bid, but are members
and neighbors of the Co-op. They did an
amazing job in all of the work they did in
our building.
Incorporated in the design of the
building were energy efficiency measures,
using materials that would last for the
next 60 plus years, and a promise to the
City that the building would not look like
an industrial facility, but instead would
capture the historic and cultural heritage
of the community. It was decided to
construct it with as much wood as possible
to reflect the fact that Vernonia has been
a timber town. The lodge look approach
was selected and incorporated into the
design and the selection of materials.
While the building looks very expensive,
in reality it is not , due to the careful choice
of materials and design. The building was
constructed for around $120 per square
foot. To help keep costs down, we reused
everything we could from the old building.
Since we just remodeled it after the flood,
it made no sense to discard items that the
members recently purchased and have
to repurchase them. Instead, we reused
doors, furniture, toilets, sinks, dispensers,
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was configured to be able to land medical
evacuation helicopters. Garage doors
were selected with the highest insulation
value both for energy efficiency and to be
able to allow the bays to be heated easily
for shelter by the two heaters installed.
WOEC also donated a generator to Wilcox
and Flegel gas facility allowing fuel to be
available for emergency vehicles and uses
during an event with the stipulation that a
minimum amounts of fuel be maintained
at all times. The Board room is also
available for community use.
The facilities we built truly
belong to the members of the Co-op and
the community that we serve. It was built
to be buildings that they can all be proud
of, know that it will last for years to come,
be an asset to them and serve them, and
represent and serve the Co-op staff as well.
It is a much safer, healthier, and efficient
work environment than we had before.
Yes, the building looks expensive, but we
built it smart, not expensive. What is the
final cost to the members each month?
After receiving funds from FEMA for
the sale of our old building, all of the
reuse of materials and items from the old
building, paying cash for the property, all
of the trading and selling of items to pay
for things we needed in the new building,
the total amount the members pay each
month for a $3.5 million facility is $3.
That’s right, only $3 per month, which
stayed within the membership survey
response. For this the membership has a
new building built to last for the next 60
plus years that is more energy efficient,
out of the flood plain, and designed to
serve as an emergency shelter in case of
another disaster event. The investment is
a good one for the current and future of
West Oregon Electric Cooperative and its
members.
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cabinets, appliances, and even dismantled
the entire kitchen and reassembled it in the
new building. Racks for the warehouse
were purchased at 50 cents on the dollar
from a company that went out of business,
a forklift was purchased by selling old
transformers to a recycler, a crane was
purchased by selling items from the old
building we were not going to be able to
reuse and a chipper we no longer needed.
We even reused some of the landscaping
from the old building including the rocks.
We also traded items for carpentry work.
The size of the facilities is often
questioned compared to our old building.
The new facilities are almost twice the
size of the old one for some very specific
reasons. Our old building was not only
insufficient for our current needs, but
could not expand for future needs. We
needed a facility that would handle current
and future needs of the Co-op, allow us to
operate more efficiently, and include room
for items we had to keep up at the pole
yard. The Co-op was losing thousands of
dollars in materials, damages to property
and equipment, and even vehicles stolen
from our pole yard. The area was out of
sight and almost impossible to secure.
Metal theft was the primary problem.
Now we have a building large enough to
bring equipment inside and materials to a
safer location. The cost savings will help
pay back the cost of the new buildings.
Features were included in the new
facility to make it useful as an emergency
shelter for the community in case of
another catastrophic event. The facility
was upgraded to survive a Category 4
seismic event. Additional lighting was
included so that the truck bays could be
used as medical triage center with the
backup generator sized to power any needs
a center would need. The parking lot
continued from page 3
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