A construction office built in 1984 as an eastern Utah headquarters for the Central Utah Project will be closed and the employees moved in January, the Bureau of Reclamation has announced.
Reclamation Regional Director Clifford I. Barrett said CUP work in the Duchesne area is mostly complete and the 30 or so federal employees now working in the Duchesne office will be placed in other jobs with the bureau or with other federal agencies. Bureau employees there were placed on a surplus list earlier this year, which gives them some preference in job placement.While a number of potential occupants have expressed an interest in the $3 million office building built just four years ago, the building's future is still somewhat uncertain.
Bureau officials in 1986 said the building would be turned over to the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, the Utah sponsor of the $2 billion federal water project. The district's name was placed on the building beside the bureau's at the time the office opened.
While the conservancy district will need some space for operations and maintenance activities for nearby Upper Stillwater Dam and other features of the project, the building is much larger than the district needs.
"We're having some discussions with the district," said bureau spokesman Barry Wirth. "We haven't determined how much of the building they have a need for at this moment compared to down the road two or three years."
Conservancy district spokesman Eldon Laird said Duchesne county government and school district officials have expressed an interest in the building, but none has made an offer that is being considered by either the bureau or the district.