EPHRATA — Building permit applications submitted to Grant County show that construction activity in the county’s unincorporated areas is making a comeback after a shutdown of construction in March and April.

Damien Hooper, director of Development Services for Grant County, said Wednesday that his department received 84 building permit applications in June. The Development Services office received 35 applications in the first nine working days of July.

There has been a lot of building activity over the last three years, Hooper said, but so far there’s more construction in 2020. For the first six months of 2020, the volume of permit applications is running ahead of the same period in 2019, he said.

Hooper said the volume of applications has prompted some concern about the ability of county staff to process them in a timely manner, especially since some positions in his office are unfilled. The decision to defer hiring is part of county officials’ effort to reduce expenses, since the statewide shutdown of business in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to reduce the county’s revenue. Hooper said he thought Development Services staffers will be able to process applications in a timely manner.

Construction activity was halted statewide in March as part of the response to the pandemic. Projects already in the works were allowed to resume in late April, and other construction resumed in May in those counties that had reached the second phase of the state’s reopening plan.

Hooper said there was uncertainty in the construction industry when the state shut down not only construction but most economic activity. No one knew how the construction market, especially housing construction, would react, and projects were put on hold. That was pretty short-lived, he said.

“I think we’re all pleasantly surprised at the resilience” of the construction industry, Hooper said.

Most of the applications coming into Grant County Development Services are for residential construction, along with some commercial and industrial projects. County land use rules allow for more acreage for individual homes than in incorporated areas, so most residential building permits in the unincorporated areas are for single-family homes, Hooper said.

Currently, most of the applications are for projects in the Moses Lake, Quincy and Mattawa-Desert Aire areas, Hooper said.

None of the current commercial projects is on the scale of the recently opened workforce education building at Big Bend Community College. However, the Port of Moses Lake is working on improvements to its west side industrial park, building a road and systems for water and sewer.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].