State doles out millions of dollars for flood and fire-related repairs

An infusion of state aid will help restore a Spokane landfill ravaged by last month’s Old Trails Fire and reconstruct a Chelan County road washed out by last winter’s historic flooding.

The Washington State Public Works Board has approved $7.45 million in loans and grants for local governments in Chelan, Franklin, Grays Harbor, King, Lewis, Spokane and Walla Walla counties. The money will be spent on emergency projects including repairs to and restoration of essential services.

Of the total, $2 million is for three emergency projects in eastern Washington and $5.45 million will assist four Washington communities dealing with damage from the flooding.

“Public works infrastructure is the backbone of every community across Washington state,” Vince McGowan, chair of the 13-member panel, said in a statement. The board, he said, “is proud to be a small part of disaster recovery by getting recovery funds in the hands of the communities that need them as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

The city of Spokane is getting a $1 million loan for emergency work at the Northside Landfill where electrical service and roughly three-quarters of the vegetation cover were damaged by the Old Trails Fire. That blaze is one of three Spokane-area fires that damaged or destroyed more than 800 structures. Money will be spent to restore vegetation and electrical power serving landfill-gas systems.

Also on the east side of the state, the city of Connell, Franklin County, is getting a $612,000 loan and $108,000 grant to repair the city’s damaged wastewater treatment lagoons and the city of Waitsburg in Walla Walla County received a $255,000 loan and $45,000 grant to fix a failed sewer pipe. The sewer line is a major collector for the city and its failure would lead to widespread sewer back-ups, according to the state Department of Commerce.

Four communities are getting help with infrastructure wrecked by the atmospheric river that hit the state in December.

The cities of Kent, in King County, and Hoquiam, in Grays Harbor County, were each awarded $2 million.

In Kent, it will go toward work on a low-lying section of South 259th Street where the Green River overflowed its banks and water reached emergency flood barriers erected along the roadway.

Hoquiam will use its funding to repair a segment of Broadway Avenue  along the Hoquiam River that is on the verge of catastrophic failure due to damage caused by king tides and heavy runoff, according to the release.

Chelan County was awarded $750,000 for reconstruction of a 400-foot stretch of Company Creek Road which was washed out by severe flooding of the Stehekin River.  Floodwaters reached their highest level since record-keeping began more than a century ago, destroying a levee that had protected downstream private and public facilities, according to the state Department of Commerce.

“Failure to complete the project will likely result in significant loss of property and life as well as loss of public access to the western end of the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area,” Mike Kaputa, director of the Chelan County Department of Natural Resources, wrote in the county’s funding application.

The city of Chehalis, Lewis County, received $700,000 to repair and reopen the Exhibitor Avenue Bridge. It was closed to traffic in June due to structural and safety concerns caused by the flooding.

The funding approved by the board on Sept. 4 came from two buckets. Money for the eastern Washington communities came from an emergency fund maintained by the board. It is open until the money is given out. There is $5.1 million left for the current budget cycle.

Funding for the flood-related damages comes from a special $10 million appropriation by the Legislature to the board earlier this year.