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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

State Office Once A Bakery, And Then A Bar

The governor’s office wants you to know that not all Washington white collar workers occupy brandspanking-new state-ofthe-art office quarters.

Take Judith Gilmore, who is Gov. Mike Lowry’s representative in Spokane.

Several years ago, a contractor converted a vacant Chapter 11 restaurant and banquet complex on the city’s North Side into office use. Now Gilmore spends her days in the bar.

“Or, if you go back still further, I’m in the bakery,” says Gilmore.

The building, located between Maple and Ash on Indiana, originally was an Albertson’s supermarket. Chapter 11 remodeled the old grocery store after Albertson’s pulled out. What became the bar, then later her office, used to be the pastry section.

Gilmore phoned following my column on a state proposal to combine a dozen scattered offices in a single building near the county courthouse complex. The building price tag of $17 million moved a state real estate manager to observe that it isn’t necessary for public servants to have the choicest digs in town.

“And we sure don’t,” says Gilmore good-naturedly.

She shares space with the Developmental Disabilities Division of the Department of Social & Health Services W1611 Indiana in one wing of the sprawling twice-converted structure.

Another wing houses the DSHS fraud investigation complement, along with state insurance commission staff. And a third wing is home to the State Department of Corrections, among others.

“Anybody is welcome to come in and take a look at my office,” invites Gilmore. “And they will see an oak table and four lamps - all my own.

“The artwork is also mine. Plus, people will see chairs in an orange and avocado color scheme that we all know haven’t been manufactured since the 1970s.

“This stuff has lasted way too damn long,” Gilmore chuckles.

“The bottom line is, the state did some good buying,” says Gilmore. “The furniture isn’t fancy, but it’s serviceable. And this governor is serious about holding down spending.”

Hmmm.

Besides saving taxpayers money on rent, Gilmore says, “There are some advantages to our being here for the people we serve, as well.

“Those who come in cars like not having to drive round and round searching for parking, which can be a problem in some locations,” said the guv’s aide. “And we’re right on bus runs, which makes us real handy in most respects.”

Actually, the state has pretty much cornered the market in old vacated grocery stores in that general vicinity.

A few blocks due south of Gilmore’s office but still between Ash and Maple, an old Safeway store on Boone is home to the DSHS’s Office of Support Enforcement.

“Right behind the old Safeway,” says Gilmore, “is a what once was the Kohler Tower United (home improvement center) complex. And it now is the DSHS public assistance applications office.”

Yet another converted Safeway supermarket at N2310 Monroe now is occupied by the state community college district’s Institute of Extended Learning.

And Gilmore says this is just the nearNorth Side. There are plenty more examples of state office workers making do around town.

For Washington private employers, the escalating cost of employee health care is slowing dramatically, according to the Seattle office of Towers Perrin, the global management consulting giant.

A new survey by the firm shows the average reported cost increase from 1994 to 1995 for almost every type of health plan was under 2 percent. That contrasts with 6 percent a year ago.

“This low rate of cost growth is remarkably good news for employers and shows the continuing positive effects of managed care and competitive forces inb the health care industry,” said Laird Post, the firm’s health care authority in Seattle.

Half of Washington residents say they’re against making any major changes in the state’s 1993 health care reform act currently in the process of being implemented, according to a new poll.

The poll was conducted by GMA Research of Bellevue for Seattle’s public TV station and First Choice Health Network.

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