By Paul Gottlieb
Special to the Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — Jefferson County’s population is less than half of neighboring Clallam County’s 78,200. But Jefferson’s $81.7 million take from the $8.7 billion biennial state capital budget is double Clallam County’s $43.5 million allotment, buoyed by the $44 million Duckabush Estuary habitat project.
The Duckabush project received the largest sum of state appropriations on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The 2023-2025 spending plan, which Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign following a unanimous favorable vote by lawmakers in both chambers, includes $8 million for the Quinault Tribe for its Generations Building, which houses programs for children and elders. The legislative session ended Sunday.
The list of 27 projects is heavy on natural resources and environment-related spending — appropriations include $5.2 million for a Department of Natural Resources land transfer at Devils Lake — while also appropriating $4 million to Jefferson Healthcare hospital for expansion of women’s health services.
The projects include $1 million for the Port of Port Townsend’s purchase of the 253-acre Short’s Family Farm in Chimacum.
Port Executive Director Eron Berg said Wednesday commissioners will appoint a farmer-centric planning committee to map the property’s future, with the port taking possession of the farm in September 2024.
Its development as a mission-oriented publicly owned parcel has the potential to make a difference in food resiliency, “the capability to feed people at home,” Berg said.
“Having a 253-acre farm to use to the benefit of the county’s farmers is right on point with that. It’s a pretty exciting time to think about this farm being available specifically for farmers that is untethered from private property needs, to be mission driven.”
The port will likely work with the University of Washington School of Urban Planning graduate students under faculty supervision to put together a plan for the parcel.
Duckabush estuary
The Duckabush project includes relocating a bridge over the Duckabush River along U.S. Highway 101 where the picturesque two-lane highway skirts the Hood Canal. Fill, levees and bridges will be modified and historical river channels reconnected.
A strip of highway will be removed, replaced with a 1,600-foot bridge that would open a passage route for fish and wildlife between the river and estuary. Public parking will be added.
The road and a 12-foot-tall wall of fill used for construction block the estuary from acting as it should, state Department of Fish and Wildlife Environmental Planner Theresa Mitchell said in an earlier interview.
The project, in the planning stages for more than 14 years, is more than halfway through the design phase, she said.
Construction could begin in summer-fall 2024 and be completed in 2029.
Health Project
Jefferson Healthcare’s appropriation for its $10 million Reproductive and Gynecological Health Project will include addition of an outpatient surgical center and expansion of clinical space.
The Health Project is part of an $82 million expansion and modernization effort that will begin in October and be completed in March 2025, hospital spokesperson Amy Yaley said Friday in an email.
It will include replacement of an aging building expansion of clinical space for additional healthcare services.
“The impact of inflation and the rising cost of construction projects has required Jefferson Healthcare to seek funding sources from other public partners to bring the total $82 million total project cost to completion,’ Yaley said.
The projects are listed in Senate Bill 5200 at leg.wa. gov and in detail by county at fiscal.wa.gov.
Jefferson projects
• $44 million: State Department of Fish and Wildlife funding for Duckabush estuary habitat restoration at the mouth of the Duckabush River.
• $8 million: Queets Generations Building, tribal climate adaptation grant to assist the Quinault Indian Nation prepare for the effects of climate change including supporting relocation of the tribal community to higher ground as part of the Taholah Village Relocation Master Plan Project. The building houses the senior program, Early Head Start, Head Start and daycare programs.
• $5.2 million: Devils Lake land transfer, from a program that funds transfers Department of Natural Resources trust land under a process developed by DNR in consultation with stakeholders. An expansion of Devils Lake Natural Resources Conservation Area south of Quilcene was ranked second by the state Board of Natural Resources inc a list of 10 priorities for transferring into conservation or recreation management.
• $4 million: Jefferson Healthcare hospital Reproductive and Gynecological Health Project, part of a hospital campus modernization and expansion effort.
• $2.9 million: Brinnon School District, from Small District & Tribal Compact Schools Modernization Program.
• $2.7 million: For Worden fire alarm system.
• $1.6 million: Fish barrier removal; Naylors Creek culvert replacement.
• $1.5 million: Quilcene School District, from Small District & Tribal Compact Schools Modernization Program.
• $1.3 million: Olympic Discovery Trail Anderson Lake extension.
• $1.14 million: Hoh River coastal restoration project.
$1 million: Short’s Farm purchase, Chimacum.
• $1 million: Fort Worden geothermal heating project, with the goal of having a carbon-free energy campus.
• $985,000: Quimper Wildlife Corridor additions.
• $861,000: Capital funding to renovate the Department of Natural Resources’ Chimacum boat and vehicle storage facility.
• $824,000: Underground tank removal, DNR facility.
• $750,000: Quilcene farmland preservation.
• $750,000: Olympic Discovery Trail land purchase, Port Townsend.
• $700,000: Replace 48-foot culvert on Water Tower Road.
• $643,000: Dabob Bay natural area, funding provided for grants for land protection and outdoor recreation projects.
• $429,000: Implementation of the Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program to purchase property north of the southwestern Jefferson County border at U.S. Highway 101 for permanent conservation easements to protect habitat for state-threatened or endangered species.
• $300,000: Maritime visitor center and site interpretation, with funding provided from the Heritage Capital Projects Fund.
• $283,000: Olympic Corrections Center, electrical work to DNR facilities and supporting infrastructure systems.
• $250,000: Salmon Creek Ruck acquisition to provide public access in the Discovery Bay Area.
• $200,000: Shale Creek Concrete Bridge Repair north of the southern Jefferson County border.
• $173,000: Port Townsend Public Library capital improvement program.
• $144,000: Infrastructure, bathroom and shop improvement project for The Recyclery, a nonprofit bike project, from the Building Communities Fund, a grant program for social service and multipurpose community center construction projects located in distressed communities or serving low-income individuals.
• $70,000: Shelter and housing services for youth, Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) Pfeiffer House, Port Townsend.
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Legislative Reporter Paul Gottlieb, a former senior reporter at Peninsula Daily News, can be reached at cpaulgottlieb@gmail.com.
