A grand opening celebration and tours of the new Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife building, located at 5525 S. 11th St. are slated for Wednesday, July 26. A flag-raising by Boy Scouts of America Troop #310 will be at 1 p.m. followed by remarks from various officials. Tours of the new building will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3p.m.

This event is open to the public. All are invited to attend. The ceremony will have seating available. To RSVP or if you need special assistance, please email WBaldwin@portridgefield.org.

Meaningful Movies in Ridgefield presents “Inhabit: a Permaculture Perspective” in partnership with the Old Liberty Theater, the Ridgefield Community Group and the Ridgefield Community Library on Wednesday July 26th, 7:30 pm at the Old Liberty Theater.

This is an opportunity to learn how to effectively grow food and heal the soil whether you are in the country, suburbs or city.  Free and open to the public, donations appreciated to cover the cost of using the theater.

Special guest speaker will be Warren Neth, Executive Director of Slow Foods Southwest Washington.

http://www.slowfoodswwa.com/

For more info:

https://meaningfulmovies.org/neighborhoods/meaningful-movies-in-ridgefield/

https://www.facebook.com/meaningfulmoviesridgefield/

About 100 Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife will move into their new Region 5 headquarters building in Ridgefield on July 3, just 11 months from the construction start date. The Port of Ridgefield was awarded a 10-year lease contract on the building last June, clearing the way to build the 31,000 square foot building on one of the port-owned properties at South 11th Street at its Wisdom Ridge development site.

The building will support WDFW’S Region 5 operations which service six Southwest Washington counties.  As of July this year, Region 5 operations will relocate to Ridgefield permanently, and the WDFW’s Vancouver office on Grand Boulevard will be permanently closed.

In addition to the office facility, there are two public meeting rooms, a fish lab, 10,000 square feet of warehouse space for WDFW storage, and 8,000 square feet of covered storage for outdoor vehicles and other equipment.

With a short time frame in which to secure engineering, permits, bidding and complete construction, the addition of record rainfall throughout the winter and spring made work on the $8 million concrete-tilt building extremely challenging. The port was, however, able to meet its June completion requirement while also coming in under budget on the project.

Laurie Olin, the port’s Vice President of Operations, credits the work of the project’s many committed contractors to meeting the deadlines established in the contract.

“While we had to overcome the weather and some bumps in the road common in construction, from the general contractor – 2 KG – to its subs, everyone worked together to get this done,” Olin said.

Port CEO Brent Grening noted that WDFW has had a long-term vision to relocate to new space.

“We congratulate WDFW on achieving this milestone, and thank past and present management for choosing Ridgefield.  We also thank the Southwest Washington legislative delegation for their support of this important project.”

The architect for the project was Mackenzie; financing for the port was provided by Banner Bank.

A grand opening celebration and tours of the building, located at 5525 S. 11th St. are slated for Wednesday, July 26. A flag-raising by Boy Scouts of America Troop #310 will be at 1 p.m. followed by remarks from various officials. Tours of the new building will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3p.m.

This event is open to the public. All are invited to attend. The ceremony will have seating available. To RSVP or if you need special assistance, please email WBaldwin@portridgefield.org.