And so marks the departure of Poulsbo’s City Hall from its longtime stomping grounds of Jensen Way. Maybe. As officials there look into building Little Norway’s municipal campus on 10th Avenue and Lincoln, one can only speculate at the taxpayer dollars that will be spent. Or saved.

That said, the city’s fiscal track record in terms of this longtime-coming project is fairly horrendous. In 2003, officials OKed the purchase of the $600,000, 2.75-acre property on the corner of Iverson and 7th Avenue, then went ahead and spent $76,000 to see whether it was a feasible plot of land for the new city hall/police station/courts/civic center. Given the increased statewide focus on the environment and the city’s own culvert widening work to enhance Dogfish Creek, one might think that trying to put the campus on top of a salmon-bearing waterway might have raised a few red flags prior to the $676,000 expenditure.

On the bright side, we may have a new park. Albeit a very expensive one.

Now there is up to $50,000 allotted to review Olympic Property Group’s 5.65-acre parcel on 10th Avenue. At least the city appears to be learning from its mistakes. Study first, potentially spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars later.

Surely some of the $50,000 will go to studying how having a police station on a well traveled road that already houses a fire station will impact traffic at an intersection that’s known for long waits. But it could work.

The proposed OPG/City of Poulsbo property swap might just work, too. In fact, it could be a real sweet deal.

The city would get its campus location and OPG would get office space downtown. Abracadabra!

Anyone out there think it’s simply a fantastic coincidence that the city is all of the sudden seeking OPG’s counsel on the historic corridor? We didn’t think so. While many cards concerning the deal are on the table, others must be played close to the vest at this point. That’s the nature of real estate deals to a degree. As is (altogether Realtors) “Location. Location. Location.” Or is it?

We find ourselves questioning he purported need for having city hall smack dab in the middle of Poulsbo. Bottom line is that as the city expands, there really is no “middle” to speak of. With developments on State Route 305, 7th Avenue and Olhava, downtown no longer commands this title. The new building simply needs to be readily accessible to the general public.

On the other hand, if the deal goes sour, the city won’t be completely back to square one but it’ll be close. It does have other options but if they were as appealing as this one, the municipal campus plan would be heading toward them.

Hopefully city officials will continue to look first and leap later. Hopefully. As for the cost of new municipal campus building itself, we’ll delve into that later…