PORT ANGELES — Paperwork to finish the Mount Pleasant Road widening and resurfacing project has been signed, sealed and delivered.
The three Clallam County commissioners Tuesday approved a quit claim deed to exchange a quarter-acre of land with Thomas Tinkham.
The equal-value trade gives the county the right of way it needed to finish a project that stemmed from people’s requests about six years ago.
“I’m very pleased to do this,” Commissioner Mike Chapman said.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time.”
Work is still needed on a 0.4-mile stretch of roadway from the Bonneville Power Administration power lines to Gravel Pit Road south of U.S. Highway 101 and southeast of Port Angeles.
Tinkham owned a gravel pit that prevented the county from acquiring the last right of way.
Clallam County last month accepted a $470,924.05 bid from Lakeside Industries Inc. of Port Angeles to complete the work.
A formal contract was signed July 21.
The county is using $500,000 in federal stimulus dollars to complete the project.
Public Works Director Craig Jacobs said there are no foreseeable hurdles standing in the way of the project’s completion.
“This is it,” Jacobs said.
He estimated the work will be completed in October.
Exchange OK’d
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams signed an order approving the land exchange July 31.
In it, the judge says the county’s property is “not necessary to the future foreseeable needs of the county,” and Tinkham’s property is “necessary to the future foreseeable needs of Clallam County.”
Meanwhile, another public hearing has been scheduled for the Lake Sutherland Management District No. 2 for the eradication of Eurasian milfoil.
District extended
County lawmakers extended the $50-per-parcel management district through 2014 — and added members to its steering committee — on July 28 after hearing overwhelming support for the district in a public hearing.
Another public hearing is needed because the county is changing an ordinance.
“We made the decision to extend it, but in order to codify it, we actually have to set a public hearing,” Chapman explained.
The public will only be able to comment on the specific language in the code, not on what the board has already decided.
The hearing is set for Aug. 25 at 10:30 a.m.
Commissioners on Tuesday also awarded a bid to Wilson Construction for the Salt Creek Tributaries Culvert Replacement Project.
The board opened the $635,477.16 bid from the Port Angeles company last week.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe is sponsoring and directing the habitat restoration project in the Salt Creek drainage west of Port Angeles.
Clallam County is doing the preliminary engineering and contract administration.
Most of the funding is coming from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Open Rivers Initiative grant and Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration dollars.
Also in the meeting, Paul Blake was appointed as a member to the Marine Resources Committee for a term expiring Dec. 31, 2011.
Blake will represent the Clallam Bay and Sekiu areas.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
