- Ephrata, WA
Grant County Public Utility Commissioners voted unanimously to shut down and relocate the PUD headquarter building in Ephrata along with two customer service centers by the year 2032. In a press statement the reasoning for the relocations comes to maintenance and upkeep costs, power outage response times, and the rising population growth in the Moses Lake metro area. According to Grant PUD their headquarter location located on C St. in Ephrata is prone to flooding.
The current Ephrata service center was determined by the commission to be the most in need for repairs and will be shut down and rebuilt in ample land in the southwest portion of Ephrata making the service center accesable for needed expansions in the future.
For Moses Lake, a new larger service center will be built in the southern portion of the city in a lot not yet disclosed, shutting down the main downtown location and relocating only the customer services to a store front location. At this time a location for the customer service center that meets criteria for appropriate expansion needs have not been selected.
Commissioner Fleisher said property purchasing and a more detailed plan will start between 2023-2024, according to Fleisher all three new locations will be designed together and will be constructed in phases. In the current plans the new Ephrata service center will be constructed first and if construction begins in 2025 the Ephrata service center will be completed in 2027 followed by the new Moses Lake expansion to start in 2029 with no estimated completion date yet followed by the new Ephrata headquarters staying in downtown Ephrata with a start date of 2032 and also does not yet have an estimated completion date.
Other customer service centers throughout the county will continue to operate with light staff to ensure response times while the two main service centers are under construction.