Wasco County to buy GOBHI Building

Wasco County Commissioners made a bold move following an executive session at their meeting yesterday. Wasco County Commissioner Phil Brady announced:

“So I move we approve the purchase of the GOBHI building, in an amount not to exceed $3.8 million dollars, and further move to grant our administrative officer authority to sign, pending legal review.”

That building was previously headquarters for Columbia River Bank, and for those with even longer memories, was the location of the downtown Payless Drug Store.

County Administrative Officer Tyler Stone explained there were several advantages for the county:

“It allows us to consolidate our administrative functions under one roof — clerks, assessment and tax, planning, building codes and those types of departments — all at one locatiion. Then we would focus in on the courthouse as being a more justice-related facility.”

He said that would involve moving parole and probation departments into the courthouse from their current location in the annex. That would have the eventual potential as selling the annex to put it back on the property tax rolls.  Moving the other administrative departments out would also free up space for the currently cramped Sheriff’s Office to expand.

The county would pay cash for the building and assume the existiing leases with the Social Security office, and those of law firm and an insurance agency. Those leases have from six to nine years left to run, and will provide a modest income stream for the county in the meantime.

Commissioners also approved fiscal year 2023-2024 budgets for the Extension District, Library District and for the county itself.

Commissioner Steve Kramer announced a burn ban for all unincorporated areas of Wasco County:

“I move to approve Order 23-046 declaring a ban on burning in Wasco County, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on June 11th, 2023.”

Staff noted that the burn ban for many years had automatically taken place on July 1, but last year it moved to June 15th, and this year’s June 11th is the earliest ever.