Facilities improvements begin at main campus

Construction of a wall with secure doorways has begun in the north hallway.

Now that we have made the current ESD offices our permanent home, we are ready to begin some of the necessary facilities improvements. Following is an update about the important work that will occur in the next couple of months:

Safety and Security
Our number one responsibility is to do whatever we can to assure our employees are safe in their workplace. With this in mind, we are moving forward with several safety and security improvements:

• You will begin seeing activity the first week in December in the main north hallway of ESD 112. Crews will be installing doors that enter into our workspaces off this hallway. (One in administration/HR and one between HR and Business Services). Starting the first weekend in December we will begin framing a raised 36’ wall. This work will continue throughout the month. To reduce disruption to that area of the building we are scheduling as much of the work as possible on weekends. These doors will remained unlocked until we have a card reader system installed later this winter.
• Installation of a card reader system for access control will begin mid-January and be completed by the end of January or early February.
• As part of the new system, the front gate will be replaced and equipped to work with our card reader system for staff needing off hour and weekend access to the 2500 building.
• A centralized camera system will also be installed to provide monitoring capacity both inside and outside of the building.

The print center decked out for its last holiday season in the 2500 building.

Parking
Rick Batterberry and his team have worked with the City of Vancouver to address the visibility issues when exiting our parking lots in front of our building. The last week in November, the City installed “no parking” signs on 65th Avenue from the NE corner of the ESD property to just south of the 2400 building entrance. While this is a welcome change to increase visibility and ensure the safety of our employees, visitors and guests, it has created some parking dilemmas for us and our C-Tran neighbors.  I want to be sure our staff and guests are aware that parking is not allowed in the C-Tran parking lot and any cars in their lot not belonging to C-Tran employees or guests will be towed!  C-Tran needs to ensure spaces are available for their stakeholders just as we do here at ESD 112, and we too will have cars in our lot not belonging to people engaging in ESD 112 business towed.

I also want to let you know we are continuing to work to improve our parking situation.  We are currently in the process of receiving bids to replace two dry wells in the north and southwest parking lots to improve drainage and eliminate the flooding and “mini lakes” we experience in heavy rain.   This work should begin in January.

Print Center Move
The demolition of the former fitness center and warehouse areas has begun to create space for the Print Center. Construction is moving along and we anticipate moving the Print Center in early February 2016.

Thank you for your input and patience as we get these improvements implemented.  More information to come soon.  Let me know if you have any questions!

-Tim