Border Patrol building to open in May
<p>Builders with PC Constriction busy on the US Customs and Border Patrol building project to meet a May 2012 deadline, three miles north of Bonners Ferry on US 95.</p>
Anyone who regularly drivies north on Highway 95 likely has noticed the ongoing construction of a large facility at Three-mile.
The $15 million project for the Spokane Sector of US Customs and Border Patrol began last July in Bonners Ferry.
PC Construction was awarded the contract for the building project.
PC Construction project manager, Dana Johnson estimates the building will be completed in May.
James Frackelton, supervisory Border Patrol Agent and Public Information Officer, said the facility will take about a year to build.
There will be no additional staff added at this time, said senior patrol agent Dave Smith.
Smith, who is stationed in Boundary County, said the building over the post office is far too small for the staff employed in Boundary County.
“This new building has been in the works for a long time,” Smith said. “This facility is much like three other Spokane Sector stations on the northern border and will have a maximum capacity of 50-75 employees.”
The building is allowing for future growth if it needed, so extra money will not have to be spent to expand the structure.
The building project was planned to facilitate employees prior to 9/11, said Smith.
Cameras will be installed, lighting, fencing, an enclosed parking structure, a multi-purpose training facility for horse patrol and K9 related activities.
Continuing the U.S. Border Patrol’s proud tradition of utilizing mounted units to protect the borders these horses patrol a stretch of border of the most rugged and remote terrain in all of North America.
Currently out of the seven stations, including Bonners Ferry, the U.S. Border Patrol, Spokane Sector, employs 300 people. They have agents in the Bonners Ferry Station who patrol from Priest River to the Yaak Mountains of western Montana.
The new facility will also have a holding cell — something the current office does not have. It will also have a place for border patrol vehicles.
Smith said a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony will be held when the building project is finished. A press release will be sent out in time to allow public to plan on attending.