Governor Returning To Bat Cave Locke Gets Ok To Return; Crew Sure Mansion Pest-Free

The state’s first family has been given the go-ahead to move back into the governor’s mansion, now that it has been declared a bat-free zone.

Gov. Gary Locke, his wife, Mona, and their infant daughter moved out of the Georgian-style residence Friday because of the repeated bat encounters.

On Wednesday, “we got the all-clear sign from the General Administration crew and the Lockes are moving back in,” press spokesman Chris Thompson said.

“They are pretty confident the problem has been resolved. They sealed up all the cracks and no bats have been sighted since Sunday.”

At least 11 bats had been spotted in the mansion, and some were captured. None has tested positive for rabies, but the governor, his wife and their daughter, Emily, had rabies shots as a precaution.

The Lockes spent five nights in a local private residence.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Wednesday that the Lockes have put their 2,080-square-foot Seattle home up for sale, with an asking price of $552,000.

The Lockes had intended to hold onto the house, returning as often as possible on weekends and during family visits to Seattle. But after their daughter was born in March, they didn’t get to Seattle as often as they had hoped.

The Lockes bought the two-story, three-bedroom, three-bath house on Capitol Hill in 1995 for $449,000, the P-I reported. But then Locke, who was King County executive at the time, got a good job in Olympia and moved into the governor’s mansion.