BARING – Although agents moved into their new $8.75 million building last year, the U.S. Border Patrol Station in this Washington County locale officially opened Thursday.

The new facility is near key crossing points between the United States and Canada.

Although it is called the Calais Border Patrol Station, it is located about 10 minutes from the Milltown Bridge in Calais and another five minutes beyond that from the Ferry Point Bridge that connect Calais with neighboring St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

The agency moved into its new offices in Baring in Washington County and Jackman in Somerset County late last year. The new office in Van Buren in Aroostook County soon will hold its grand opening.

The nearly 25 border agents who regularly patrol eastern Washington County now can do their work in a state-of-the-art facility. The nearly 20,000-square-foot building is located on a 10-acre site in Baileyville’s industrial park on state Route 9 and U.S. Route 1. A portion of the industrial park – where the border facility sits – is in Baring.

Agents used to have an office on the second floor of the Calais port-of-entry building at the Ferry Point Bridge.

Among those who spoke at the grand opening ceremonies were the Rev. Frank Morin of St. James Church in Baileyville who offered the invocation and Chief Patrol Agent Joseph Mellia of the Houlton Sector.

Also in attendance were representatives from U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins’ offices and from U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud’s office.

Among those welcoming the nearly 30 guests who attended the grand opening ceremonies was Patrol Agent in Charge of the Calais facility, Patrick J. Murphy. “We are celebrating and recognizing the fine men and women of the Border Patrol who will be headquartered here,” he said. He then noted that those same men and women stand ready to protect the nation’s borders from terrorists.

Then it was off for a tour of the facility led by Agent Matt Whittaker. Included in the tour was the processing room where suspects are taken and held. Inside that room were several male and female holding cells, something the former border patrol offices did not have. “We can run records checks on anyone we arrest or suspect and are thinking of arresting,” he explained.

The building has a small exercise room and a full-size heated garage.

There is a separate room where there are about 20 cubicles for the agents to work in. “Everything is becoming more and more computerized for us,” Whittaker said. “When I came here 15 years ago the fight was over who got the electric typewriter, now everything is done on the computer and we all have our own spot and own space to do that.”

The federal government plans to build a helicopter-landing pad in the near future to land U.S. Border Patrol and other agency helicopters. There also was talk of building a shooting range. “The helicopter plan is probably two years out,” Mellia said. “The shooting range, that is distant future.”

More than two years ago, a combined construction contract totaling nearly $12.7 million was awarded for the Baring and Jackman stations to JCN Construction Co. of Manchester, N.H.

A separate contract for the $6,432,890 Van Buren station was awarded to CJP Associates of Caribou in April 2006.

The Jackman station is located on state Routes 6 and 15, about 2.5 miles east of U.S. Route 201. It is near the Quebec border.

The facility in Van Buren is located on U.S. Route 1A at the former site of the Van Buren Drive-In Theater.