Session likely will end before return to Capitol

BRAD SHANNON, THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- State legislators will have to wait at least four more weeks before reoccupying the earthquake-damaged Legislative Building, state officials said Friday.

Crews will wedge in timbers to hold some stones in place while others are removed, said Andy Stepelton, a senior property manager for the state Department of General Administration. A crane will help.

"They're between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds and there's five of them," Stepelton said of the sandstone blocks. "So it's sort of like dancing with an elephant. You have to do things just right or you get squished."

Legislators will probably wrap up their regular-session work in temporary quarters in nearby office buildings, although the public might get access to the Capitol's cafeteria and Rotunda by mid-April. The session is scheduled to close April 22.

The prevailing sentiment among lawmakers is that another mid-session move would be more trouble than it's worth, since staff members already are set up in the new digs, House Republican Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard said.

He also dismissed prospects of moving next door to the state library building to hold House floor sessions, which have been held in cramped committee hearing rooms since the Feb. 28 Nisqually Earthquake.

Rep. Lynn Kessler, the Democratic leader in the House, said she went into her closed Capitol office Friday to grab a couple of file boxes and a photo of her 2-year-old grandson, preparing for the long haul.

"I might as well make myself at home," Kessler said from an O'Brien Building office she borrowed from a House staff member. Two file boxes and a shelf hold all of Kessler's gear.

About $20 million in repairs will be needed, much of it paid by federal disaster-aid cash.

It will be safe for the public to enter the building once collars are put around pillars that budged during the quake, said Marsha Tadano Long, director of the Department of General Administration.

Brad Shannon, political editor for The Olympian, can be reached at 753-1688 or shannonbrad@hotmail.com.

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