Earlier this month, Lewis County accepted roughly $4.5 million in grant funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to be used to build a new Public Works Department workshop near Adna.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the grant funding during the board's business meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The federal dollars will also come with roughly $250,000 from the state of Washington and requires a $250,000 match from the Lewis County Roads Fund.
The total funding for the project is approximately $5 million and, according to Lewis County Engineer Wes Anderson, will be used to build a new project shop on the same property as an existing shop situated where Spooner Road meets Washington state Route 6.
The existing shop is outdated and no longer fits the necessary equipment for the area, to include vehicles such as dump trucks and space to store materials.
According to Anderson, the Lewis County Public Works Department plans to first commission a feasibility study for putting a new shop on the property. The county hopes to build a new shop similar to one built near Randle in recent years after the old one was damaged by fire.
An information sheet on the project describes the proposed building as a two-story metal building with a roof that slopes a single direction. The building would have a roughly 10,730-square-foot footprint.
The new project is what's known as an alternate project. The initial funding from FEMA was slated to repair a portion of a local access road near Winlock called Burnett Road. The road was damaged back in 2022 due to heavy and prolonged winter rain, according to the original project description.
The new project shop was identified as a better use of the funds, however, and was recently approved by FEMA as a valid alternate project.
