Funding for projects throughout Lewis County in the state’s capital and transportation budgets has many local government leaders and organizations looking forward to the progress the money will bring to the county, whether it stretches throughout the area or is focused in a small town.
Advocates of various projects throughout the county spoke to The Chronicle on Thursday about why they worked to secure state funding.
Flood Projects to Reduce Damage, Restore Habitat and Provide Protection
While $79 million for flood-related projects in the Chehalis Basin didn’t make the final cut in the transportation budget, Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund said it wasn’t money the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority was counting on, but the group is pleased with the $50 million in the capital budget.
The money is split, with $26.8 million allocated to long term projects such as the proposed dam in West Lewis County. The remainder will go toward local projects. The Flood Authority is working to finalize its list of biennium projects throughout the basin.
“We’ve been really proactive in putting (local projects) forward and have some in design level … it’s good to get them moving toward shovel ready,” Fund said.
Some of those projects include more livestock pads in the basin that will allow farmers to move animals to higher ground during a flood event.
If the $79 million had come through, some of that would have gone to continuing work on the Airport Levee. Fund expects negotiations about the project involving the Department of Transportation to continue.
Industrial Access
While flood money didn’t make the transportation budget, lawmakers scheduled $50.5 million to be allocated in the future for a new interchange on Interstate 5 in Lewis County north of Centralia.
“North county industrial access is what we’re calling it,” Fund said.
Fund said the project has two primary benefits: boosting the economy and better public safety for drivers.
If recruiters trying to get companies to the area can show the state supports them, it helps to bring businesses and jobs into north Lewis County, Fund said.
Last year, the county put $500,000 into researching the project. The local contribution from the county, along with its partnerships with other local agencies, helped move the project forward, she said.
“If we can get somebody there, that would help our economy so much in so many ways, so as TransAlta decreases, we have something else on the other side of it that will help us move up,” Fund said.
Along with boosting the economy, the project should also divert traffic off of Harrison Avenue in Centralia, she said.
Funding for the project is planned to be allocated in the 2025-27 budget.
Cascade Evaluation and Treatment Center
Cascade Mental Health Alternative can start the first phase for a new 16-bed evaluation and treatment center in the Twin Cities, thanks to $3 million allocated to the project in the state’s capital budget.
The facility would allow for Lewis County residents experiencing acute mental health crises to stay in the county instead of traveling to Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Cascade CEO Richard Stride said.
The facility would save the county money because it wouldn’t have to pay to transport Lewis County Jail inmates suffering from mental health issues to Lakewood, and it would generate revenue by taking on patients from neighboring counties.
It would also bring an estimated 40 to 50 jobs to the area.
Stride said Cascade has been discussing the project for about one and one-half years and expects the project to take three to four years and cost $6 million to $7 million.
The capital budget funds should cover planning and design and securing a location for the center.
“It’s going to be quite an endeavor for us. It’s something brand new, but we just felt like it was something that was needed here,” Stride said. “We just don’t have anything in this five county area that is like this, so it’s definitely needed.”
Green Hill School Residential Mental Health Unit
When Maple Lane School in Ground Mound closed in December 2011, the juvenile offender system lost a facility that housed youth inmates with mental health disorders.
Inmates from the school merged with those at Green Hill in Chehalis.
Green Hill Superintendent Marybeth Queral said when that happened, the school got a new residential mental health unit.
“But what we’ve realized is that we need another,” she said, adding that 64 percent of the school’s population deals with varying degrees of mental health issues, from those who are diagnosed with a mental health disorder, prescribed psychotropic medication or are on a suicide or self-harm level.
She said it took a bit of time for the school to assess the population to determine the amount of designated mental health units required.
“It became clear that we were getting just kids with more complicated mental health treatment needs as a whole,” Queral said.
Using the $4.95 million allocated in the capitall budget, the school will be doing an extensive renovation to an existing building to create a 16-bed residential mental health unit and a three-bed acute mental health unit.
“When you have kids with serious mental health issues, it does not work to have them in (the general population units),” she said.
Pe Ell Second Street Rebuild
When The Chronicle called Pe Ell Mayor Lonnie Willey for comment about a project in his town, he hadn’t yet heard that Pe Ell was awarded $197,000 for its Second Street rebuild.
“Outstanding!” he said when a Chronicle reporter told him it was in the budget. “... If it’s in the capital budget that’s perfect. That’s outstanding. I’m excited.”
The town was awarded an $800,000 community development block grant for the project near the end of last year. However, the engineer’s original project estimate was about $990,000.
Willey contacted state representatives to advocate for the funding and also asked the engineer to scale down the project to fit within the $800,000 in case the money didn’t come through.
Now the engineers can go back to the original plan for the about five to six blocks worth of street that will get new water lines, new fire hydrants, new street parking and sidewalks.
“So it’s a complete overhaul,” Willey said.
The street has needed a makeover for about 20 years, he said.
The town hopes to put the project out to bid in January 2016 and start construction by March or April of that year.
