PORT ANGELES — Road projects ranging from a new, two-lane Elwha Bridge to preliminary work on a Deer Park Road overpass of U.S. Highway 101 received Clallam County commissioners’ approval Tuesday.
The 2007 program was part of the county’s $85.3 million budget for next year that commissioners adopted, with a lone member of the public attending the meeting.
The man, a Clallam County Courthouse habitué, turned down commissioners’ invitation to comment on the spending outlay.
The road projects total nearly $19.6 million, most of it covered by state and federal transportation funds.
Replacing the old, one-lane Elwha Bridge — and carrying the Olympic Discovery Trail across the river on a catwalk suspended below the vehicle deck — tops the outlays with its $7.4 million price tag, all of it in federal funds.
Other major projects include:
* Realigning a curve on Black Diamond Road: $110,000.
* Extending Old Deer Park Road over or under Highway 101 east of Port Angeles: $330,000 for preliminary engineering and buying right of way.
* Improving the Hoko-Ozette Road: $205,000.
* Widening Kitchen-Dick Road for a bike/hike lane from Woodcock Road to Lotzgesell Road: $75,000.
* Widening about a mile of Mount Pleasant Road: $1.03 million.
* Widening, regrading and resurfacing Old Olympic Highway from Lewis Road to Matson Road: $920,000, and from Matson Road to Barr/Gunn roads: $35,000
* Building the Olympic Discovery Trail from the Elwha Bridge to Lake Crescent: $80,000; from Lake Crescent to Cooper Ranch Road: $868,000; and 4½ miles between Sequim and Blyn: $550,000.
County draws on reserves
The program also calls for buying trucks, generators and other equipment totaling $784,000.
The overall county budget includes nearly $1.47 million from the county’s general fund reserves in one-time spending to remodel and expand the county jail, to increase juvenile services, and to buy new software for the Superior Court clerk and for the county assessor.
If these items were eliminated, the budget would have been $124,855 in the black, said County Administrator Jim Jones.
Requests turned down
In a budgeting process that started last summer, commissioners turned down elected and appointed county officials’ requests for $1.2 million in new equipment, services and salaries, he said.
Jones has predicted cutbacks and layoffs for 2008 unless unforeseen revenue turns up.
Darkening the picture is the possible loss of nearly $1 million in federal Secure Schools funding that is due to expire next year.
The money made up for losses from timber sales in counties that depended heavily on forest products.
