California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
A new San Bernardino Municipal Water Department (SBMWD) Customer Service Office is scheduled to open its doors to the public on Tuesday, May 30, immediately following the Memorial Day holiday. The new facility is a reuse of an existing city building that has been updated to meet the Americans with Disability Act specifications as well as other requirements for both customers and employees.
The relocation of the SBMWD Customer Service Office was deemed necessary after two independent engineering evaluations in the last decade indicated that the facility would be unsafe in an earthquake. The city of San Bernardino determined in early October – following an unusual swarm of small temblors on the southern end of the San Andreas Fault – that they would begin actively working to relocate the services of the city departments and employees, including the staff of the SBMWD Customer Service Office, in the building which was designed was designed prior to the earthquakes code updates following the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes. The building sits along two fault lines.
One of the two evaluations, which was done in February 2016 indicated that a 6.0 earthquake or greater would lead to “a likelihood of building failure” for City Hall. On average, during the first week of a month some 200 employees, including the water department’s staff, are located in the building. Additionally, the water department averages between 800 to 900 walk-in customers.
All current water department customer service activities – now located on the 2nd and 5th Floors of City Hall — will be relocating to the new facility at 1350 South “E” Street in San Bernardino, south of Orange Show Road. The current SBMWD Customer Service Office will permanently close at noon on Friday, May 26.
“Our staff worked diligently to get the relocated facility up and running and residents can be proud of the work done on the short time line we were provided,” sate Stacey Aldstadt, SBMWD general manager. “We needed this facility done quickly, but we also needed it done right. I am very pleased we accomplished both.”
