Breaking ground: Sonico celebrates beginning of construction at new facility

MOSES LAKE — As Sonico President Bill Perdue was detailing the rich history of the company that has been doing aircraft maintenance and repairs in Moses Lake for 35 years, an airplane flew over the crowd that was gathered at the site of what will be Sonico’s new facility in Moses Lake.

About 30 people gathered at the site, which is located on Randolph Road, to celebrate the company breaking ground on its new 28,000 square-foot building that will be designated for maintenance shops and offices. Monday’s breaking ground ceremony marked the first time Sonico’s operations will be consolidated into one building.

“You that don’t work at Sonico won’t appreciate the fact that we have operated for years with less than adequate lighting, less than adequate water and draining. And over half of our building is not heated and more than 70 percent of it is not air conditioned,” Perdue stated. “This new building will be totally heated, totally air conditioned and we think it really will enhance the performance of the people that work here.”

With a company motto of being a good neighbor, Perdue says the new facility will be one that is aesthetically pleasing to passersby, as well as the community at large. He noted that Sonico has a number of international clients in addition to their clients in the U.S. and there has to be a certain amount of importance placed on the appearance and functionality of the building. Perdue explained that breaking ground on the facility was a journey in itself.

“We don’t have the final decision, the determination, on the building itself. We have to satisfy the county (Grant), this property all was county property at one time. Now the county involvement starts with Randolph (Road) and this has now all been annexed by the city (Moses Lake), so this is all city property,” he explained. “So we have had to please those two entities and we have had to coordinate with them.”

In addition to working with the county and city, the building has to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements. Perdue said the many entities Sonico has dealt with caused a delay in getting the building project started. Sonico went through delays when it came to the appraisal of the property itself, with appraisers not wanting to believe that Sonico wanted to heat and air condition the entire building.

But that didn’t stop Sonico officials, who were adamant that they wanted the building to be accommodating to the needs of their hard-working employees.

“It is important to us and it’s important to the FAA and it’s going to be also important to the employees that the whole building is heated and the whole building is air conditioned,” Perdue remarked. “I think people will appreciate that.”

With the site’s close proximity to Big Bend Community College, Perdue said Sonico intends to work close with the college to invite students to come to the new facility and give them the chance to receive on-the-job training.

“We tend to invite students to come and sit in with our people when they are trained and actually give them some work experience working on components that they may not see at the college,” he stated.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.