The 18-month odyssey of Snoqualmie’s new City Hall came to an end last Friday, Dec. 11, as city staff moved into the building.

“It’s been quite the journey,” City Administrator Bob Larson said Friday. “We’re ecstatic. To a person, all the employees are getting everything ready. We look forward to having five of our seven departments in one place.”

The building took longer and cost more to build than planned, and still poses some parking problems. However, Snoqualmie officials expect to recoup costs and gain energy savings and productivity through the new structure. They put the building to use right away, holding a council meeting Monday, Dec. 14, in the new chambers.

The city expects to save about 30 percent of its energy costs due to the consolidation.

Other savings are less tangible, Larson said. It’s hard to put a value on the ability to house 35 employees in one space instead of three.

The building combines the planning department and the city attorney’s office with departments formerly housed in the old city hall.

That means less travel time and more opportunities to communicate instantly, in person, rather than by e-mail or phone call.

Historic moment

“My life is about to get a little simpler,” said Snoqualmie City Clerk Jodi Warren. As long as she can remember, for her entire 13-year career with the city, council meetings have meant short road trip and effort setting up and tearing down equipment.

“This will be the first city hall that houses the council chambers, which is really a big deal to a city clerk,” Warren said. “Ever since I’ve worked here, every single council meeting, I’ve had to pack a suitcase and a special set-up, just to have our meetings. It’s a lot of work.”

Over the last century, Snoqualmie’s city hall has been housed in a variety of locations — the old fire hall, the former planning department, the former Mignone Interiors, the Sno Falls Brewing Company building, and at one point, briefly moving to North Bend following a flood.

The new city hall is the first building constructed specifically as a city hall.

“It is a landmark event in our city’s history,” said Warren, who is organizing a dedication and open house, 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, complete with a color guard, ribbon cutting, Snoqualmie Tribe dance performance and plenty of entertainment.

Long wait

The city hall was meant to be completed last March. Major work ended this fall, and city vendors gained access to the building two weeks ago, adding phones, video equipment and storage cabinets.

In Larson’s view, delays on the job stemmed from Seattle-based contractor Bird Construction’s late submittals for complex project components last fall. Detailed documents on areas such as key wall and mechanical systems must be reviewed by the city. Those proposals were not submitted on time, throwing the timeline off in a domino effect.

“Once the schedule gets off the critical path, it’s very difficult to bring it back together,” Larson said.

At one point, the city halted payments to the contractor over delays.

The city remains in negotiation with its contractor over liquidated damages.

The city hit Bird with $2,000 in damages daily for seven months, stopping at the end of October.

Damages are meant to offset eight month of extended contracts with the +project manager, Harris and Associates of Seattle, and the architect, Gensler of Seattle, for oversight of the job.

The building’s final price tag is expected to come in about $120,000 above the final $4.9 million bid. That cost is minus the $380,000 in damages that the city is asking from Bird. The original price tag of the structure was about $3.9 million.

The new city hall also opens with more staff than parking spaces.

Employees are asked to park along Highway 202 and at the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church lot.

That will minimize the impact to neighbors and allow parking on site for visitors and customers, according to Larson.

Once move-in is complete, the city will focus on selling its former building department and the old city hall. City Economic Consultant Bob Cole is tasked with finding buyers.

The city will still own the former Snoqualmie Library building, now vacant.