Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Plans for 2020 in the county Public Works department
include the large-scale Almota Road Phase Four reconstruction, a possible overlay of a half-mile of Steptoe Street and Sholz Road east of Steptoe, remodeling and two additions made to the landfill’s moderate waste facility building, design work for Almota Three, continued Hume Road reconstruction and bridge replacements.
Voters approval of the rural roads levy lid lift will also means the department will add three new operators to run road graders on gravel roads.
“Almota Four is the biggest item,” said Mark Storey, Public Works director, referring to 3.5 miles of widening from Union Flat Creek to the intersection of State Route 194 near Onecho Bible Church.
Snow cost factor
The proposed 2020 work at Steptoe is estimated to cost $125,000 to $250,000.
“Depending on how much we do,” said Storey. “Just waiting to see how the winter treats us. If it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars out of cash, we might wait another year.”
Lifted levy
With new money coming from the levy lid lift in 2020, the department will hire three new operators, beginning in January, along with an added $300,000 in rock crushing. The lid lift and subsequent spending is focused on gravel roads.
“It will allow us to keep people in road graders more,” said Storey.
“Before, we had to rob the road grader crews to do other maintenance.”
Almota Four arrives
Almota Four is part of a four-phase, 12-mile reconstruction project which began in 2009.
For the fourth section, the drilling and blasting of rock has begun, with earth-moving to start likely next May. Work will continue through the fall.
“We might not have good enough weather in the fall to pave it,” Storey said, indicating the final work may be finished in 2021.
Moderate risk waste facility
This week, draft designs were expected to arrive from Great West Engineering of Boise for the county’s 25-year-old moderate risk waste facility (MRW) – to remodel the existing building and put in two additions to where county residents drop off hazardous waste such as paint and pesticides.
The project is estimated at $850,000.
“Part of our goal is to protect the environment,” Storey said.
The work is expected to go out to bid in March or April, to be done by next fall. At the MRW, when a homeowner brings in a can of paint, for example, it is put in a 55-gallon drum which is “lab-packed” and sent to a distributor in Spokane, which ships it to a toxic waste landfill in Arlington, Ore.
Designs
Also for 2020, the Whitman County Public Works department will work on designs for Almota Phase Three, and a second phase of Hume Road reconstruction, for the last three miles south of Oakesdale.
Phase Four of Almota came before Three because it happened to be funded first.
Initiative 976 effect
The above county projects will arrive amidst a new state funding environment after Initiative 976 limiting motor vehicle taxes and fees, was approved in November.
Storey estimates a subsequent three to 20 percent drop in state funding to the County Road Administration Board.
“We really don’t know yet what it means,” he said.
Nonetheless, most of the effect will be seen past 2020, since funding is already in place for current projects.
“Our projects won’t feel it until 2021,” Storey stated.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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