PORT TOWNSEND – Jefferson County has been awarded a $50,000 grant to help with the expnses of the Beckett Point septic project, which was delayed by the finding of Native American remains and artifacts.
Beckett Point residents has learned earlier this week that work on their Discovery Bay community septic and drain-field system will resume on Sept. 4.
On Friday, the news came through that a state Department of Ecology grant will help compensate the county for costs of the delay. The project was halted in May for investigation.
“After pressing folks down at Ecology at the top levels, we have secured a $50,000 grant,” a happy Jefferson County Environmental Health Director Mike McNickle said Friday.
“This is to help pay for any of those miscellaneous things the (Public Utility District) is almost going broke over.”
McNickle said he personally contacted Ecology Director Jay Manning, telling him he thought Ecology’s rejection of an original grant application earlier this month was “inherently unfair.”
Two $250,000 grants recently went to King County and San Juan County for pilot projects there, raising the ire of officials, including Discovery Bay resident and PUD Commissioner Wayne King, who angrily stated in an e-mail, “It’s all for the votes.”
