The Lewis County Public Health and Social Services building in Chehalis has long been in need of an upgrade.
Soon, it will get one thanks to a $1.5 million direct allocation from the state’s 2026 supplemental capital budget secured in large part by state Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis.
The 19,000-square-foot building completed in 1953 is well on its way to having a full heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system for the first time ever.
Lewis County Facilities Administrator Matt Patana led a small tour through the building Wednesday afternoon accompanied by Abbarno, minority caucus chair and assistant ranking minority member on the House Capital Budget Committee.
The project, which is still in the planning stages, will allow the county to move from a boiler and radiator heating system to a more traditional HVAC system mounted on the roof of the building.
According to Patana, the county is currently working with a contractor to figure out exactly what kind of system to use in order to lower construction costs and make the new system as energy efficient as possible.
“Pretty excited about what’s possible,” Patana said. “And hopeful that that we can have some redundancies so that if there are any failures, you know, we don’t have a single unit like we have right now.”
According to Patana, the county hopes to put the engineering portion of the project out to bid in roughly two months. In pursuit of saving some money, the county plans to pair the engineering for the project with some work on the heating and cooling system at the nearby Lewis County Law and Justice Center.
He hopes the project will be completed sometime next year and well within budget. Because the project is funded with a direct allocation from the state, any leftover dollars could be reallocated for other related projects.
“If it comes in under or you have to change the scope of the project because of some contingency,” Abbarno said, “this gives you a little bit more flexibility to call my office and be like, ‘Hey, we’ve got some changes here.’”
The tour offered a chance to give Abbarno a closer look at a project he advocated for in the state Legislature last year after county staff called out the issue during a legislative roundtable meeting ahead of the state’s 2026 short legislative session.
“What’s really nice about this project was I didn’t even know this was on your radar until you guys brought it up at the legislative forum,” Abbarno said. “Sometimes people say ‘why do you have these legislative round tables before you go to session?’ Perfect example, right?”
The Lewis County Public Health and Social Services Building currently relies on a boiler located in the basement of the building that pumps hot water through radiators throughout all three floors. For air conditioning in the summer, the building relies on small window units.
With the new system, that boiler will remain as a water heater for normal water use, but all heating and cooling will transition to a new system. County officials hope that it will result in significant savings in the future both in maintenance and energy efficiency for the building.
During the tour, Patana even floated the idea of going after funding to install a solar array on the roof of the building in the future to reduce energy costs for the nearly 75-year-old building, once work on the new rooftop system is completed.
“We can start looking at whether we can do things like solar arrays and looking for ways to make this building better and more efficient,” Patana said.
The Lewis County Public Health and Social Services building is a workhorse among the few buildings that make up the county government’s campus in downtown Chehalis.
The facility houses all the operations of the county’s Public Health and Social Services Department, which is one of its largest and serves thousands of people directly. Those programs and services include services such as the county water laboratory, which offers water testing for private wells, veteran services and the county’s Women Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program.
According to the manager of the program, Alisha Griffith, the local WIC program has seen a major increase in demand in recent months, serving more than 1,600 women and children across hundreds of households in Lewis County and, at times, even beyond.
The building also currently serves the county’s Information Technology (IT) department on its first floor. However, thanks to renewed progress on a nearby stalled project, that department will soon move across the street. allowing more space in the public health building.
The county is soon to renew work on the brick building on Northwest Chehalis Avenue attached to its new Community Development building. The county originally purchased the building back in 2020. It had most recently been occupied by DB Cooper Appliances.
After completing some of the necessary structural work, the project stalled out around the same time as lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation.
According to Patana, the county expects to move forward with the renovation of the building soon, using capital facilities funding coming from the sale of an old county public works building.
