Commissioner Bobby Jackson, right, talks to fellow commissioners Edna Fund and Gary Stamper during a workshop in August in the commissioners' hearing room.
The Chehalis Basin Flood Control Zone District is now slated to receive funding so the board of supervisors can continue its work as the project sponsors of a proposed dam near Pe Ell.
In a workshop on Wednesday, Erik Martin, the administrator of the district and public works director for Lewis County, informed the supervisors they will be receiving approximately $59,525 to help pay for associated costs, such as staff time for meetings and hiring a project manager.
Martin is currently working on a contract with the state Recreation and Conservation Office to receive the funds in advance of a capital budget, which local lawmakers said last week could be approved in November after Democrats in the House and Republicans in the Senate failed to come to an agreement.
“The RCO is aware of our need for advanced funding,” he said, adding the district could receive some of the funds as early as mid September.
The money will be distributed on a monthly basis. In September, the district is expected to receive $11,905. It would then receive $23,810 during both the months of October and November.
“This assumes we have a capital budget in November,” Martin said. “If we don’t, we’ll have to go back and say, ‘What do we do now?’”
Martin will work with Glenn Carter, with the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office, to schedule a meeting with the Auditor’s Office, which will set up a separate fund for the money.
It’s important to make sure the money does not co-mingle with county funds, Carter said.
The board of supervisors, which is made up of Lewis County Commissioners Edna Fund, Gary Stamper and Bobby Jackson but runs as its own governing entity, is eyeing Jim Waldo, with the law firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell, as its project manager.
Waldo joined the firm as a partner in 1980 and “focuses his practice on complex negotiations, project permitting and implementation, representation of public and private entities in multi-party negotiations, with an emphasis on environmental issues including natural resources, energy and tribal law,” according to the firm’s website.
He came highly recommended to the board for the position.
“We’ve heard really wonderful responses when we’ve asked people about him,” Fund said.
If hired, Waldo would be a contract employee and would bill the district for his time as needed, Martin said.
During the workshop, the board of supervisors went over advisory committee applicants and decided to increase the amount of people on the committee after it received more applications than it had expected.
At its next meeting, the board plans to amend a previously adopted resolution so the board will include 11 members who will be selected at that time.
The applicants represent different geographical areas of Lewis County, the supervisors said.
The supervisors will also likely continue their discussions on the type of dam they would like to see on the Chehalis River near Pe Ell. There are three options they can choose from.
Those options include a flood retention-only dam, which would only have a reservoir during a major flood event, and a flood retention and flow augmentation dam, which would have a permanent reservoir pool that could be released to help cool water temperatures in warmer months.
A third option, one that mixes the two concepts, has also been presented. The hybrid dam option would initially be built like the flood retention-only dam, but would include a larger foundation suitable for an expansion for a bigger structure that could capture larger floods in the future.
The supervisors plan to hold open house meetings to inform the public on the options moving forward.
Jackson stated that as of now he supported the hybrid option, while Fund and Stamper did not discuss a specific dam type.
“To be real honest with you, I don’t have a preference. I’m interested in what the people have to say, because again, it’s not only going to impact the people of Pe Ell, but all the way down the Chehalis Basin,” Stamper said.
Martin stated that even when the supervisors do make a decision on the type of dam, that doesn’t mean it will be final.
The state Department of Ecology will conduct an environmental impact statement on the options utilizing the best available science to present the benefits of the proposed water retention facility types and the costs.
“The fact the sponsoring agency picks one is important because they need the sponsor to say this is what they want, but they are going to get the same level of scrutiny for the three alternatives through the process. The EIS will say what it’s going to say regardless of what you choose,” Martin said.
The flood control zone district meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month. The meetings, held in the commissioners hearing room at the courthouse, 351 NW North St., Chehalis, are open to the public.
