Port of Wilma may see upgrades

Port and county commissioners Monday conducted a joint workshop session on port and county related issues.

Mark Storey, public works director, and Marc La Vanway, county project engineer, brought before the commissioners a proposed project for the roads at Port of Wilma along with cost estimates.

They want to solve drainage issues, overlay the road and repair weak spots.

Storey mentioned surface water at the port can't be drained directly into the river. Their goal is to get the drainage away from the railroad line which is causing rail ties to rot.

Port Executive Director Joe Poire said the Port has put a couple million dollars into their rail leads at the Port of Wilma. He said they have been fighting the standing water on the ties and continual maintenance on the rail.

"Most of the roads are in fairly good shape, about 10 percent have kind of fallen apart," La Vanway said. "If we dig out about 10 percent of the road we can get it fixed and overlay it."

The options presented for the road overlay were concrete and a hot mix asphalt.

Concrete generally costs more than asphalt, but holds a longer use life. For this project, it was presented that if concrete were used the overall cost would come to $3.1 million and with asphalt the cost is closer to $1.65 million.

The commissioners decided to look at the hot mix asphalt option for their discussion.

Storey said that before the commissioner workshop he met with Poire and Kara Riebold, port properties and development manager, where they discussed that before any finalization is done for the design, the Public Works Department will meet with all the tenants down at Port of Wilma to figure out their needs and what would work best for the project.

"We are going to have to do this project some day, but we don't have the money for it," Storey said. "One of the things that we talked about is applying for some grant money. We talked about applying for the CERB grant."

CERB stands for Community Economic Revitalization Board. This board was formed to respond to local economic development in Washington communities.

According to the Department of Commerce website, CERB provides funding to local governments and federally-recognized tribes for public infrastructure which supports private business growth and expansion.

Only specific projects are eligible for CERB funds. Those include domestic and industrial water, stormwater, public building, telecommunications and port facilities.

"If we apply for that money, the deadline is coming up here soon, for a $1.6 million project. It means that if we got the grant it would be $400,000 and we would have to come up with the $1.2 million," Storey said. "It will probably have to be some combination of county and port money. Nobody wants to talk about it, it is the elephant in the room, but it has to be put out there."

The grant application is due Nov. 18.

One issue highlighted whether or not the proposed levy lid lift for unincorporated areas of Whitman County would pass in the election.

This levy would collect another $1.4 million a year for gravel road maintenance, additional road crew workers and newer grading equipment.

Storey mentioned that there are other categories included in this levy, and drainage and paving type projects would fit in.

"We are trying to crystal ball this and it's not going to work until we know how the levy lift turns out," said County Commissioner Michael Largent.

Poire said with applying for the grant, if down the road it doesn't look like the project is feasible, the CERB board can be contacted and the effort relinquished.

If the application is submitted and approved the money would be awarded on July 1. Once the money is received, there is a two-year time frame to use the grant money.

"This is one of the things that have to be done eventually," Storey said. "Doesn't have to be done now, but in a few more years the amount of repair work will probably go up, not down."

The commissioners approved to start the application process.

"There's enough commerce through that port district down there that I would be in favor of working with them if everything lines up," said County Commissioner Dean Kinzer.

Storey said, in the end, the voters will make the decision. He added that if the vote is no they would need to back up on this project and re-evaluate to see what happens next.