Cal Water has new home in downtown Marysville

Employees of the California Water Service Co. moved this week into a new facility in downtown Marysville.

Starting Monday, customers can pay bills at Cal Water's new building at 131 D St. The company's phone number and office hours will remain the same.

Marysville District Manager Lee Seidel is looking forward to calling the new 4,200-square-foot building home, noting the work area is about twice the size of the company's previous accommodations.

The building also features a 500-square-foot training facility, conference room, an employee lunchroom/lounge, better security and parking. The lobby is about two to three times larger also.

"For on-street parking, there's maybe 20 spaces available where we had three before. All of our employee parking will be off the street and in an enclosed area," Seidel said.

"There are so many things about the building, we actually tried to keep the customer in mind and the environment in mind," he said. "We located the building in an area of town that's close to public transportation ... and other utilities. The PG&E center is a block away."

Cal Water has 40 to 80 walk-in customers per day. Seidel said the company hopes foot traffic will have a positive effect on downtown commerce.

The old building, at 629 Ninth St., was leased and will become a commercial rental property.

Cal Water, which operates and maintains drinking water systems for Marysville, is the third largest investor-owned American utility in the country. Based in San Jose, it serves more than 472,000 customers through 28 customer and operations centers in the state.

CONTACT Laura van der Meer at lvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4771. Find her on Facebook at /ADlvandermeer or on Twitter at @ADlvandermeer.