PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson Transit board on Tuesday got the wheels rolling once again to possibly build a $14 million transit administration and vehicle maintenance facility.
The board directed staff to issue a request for proposals for architectural and site design.
The facility would be located on a 10-acre site that Transit purchased in 2007 at the northeast corner of Four Corners Road at state Highway 20.
Jefferson Transit has applied for a $10 million transportation stimulus grant with no local match required.
It is one of 1,380 applicants around the nation. The grant award is expected to be announced early next year.
The grant requires a “shovel-ready” project, so transit officials are proceeding to the design and engineering phase of the building site plans and drawings to increase their chances for the federal funding.
Lee Kennel, grants administrator, said Transit already has 80 percent of the funding to get the request for proposals out.
Costs of design
The estimated cost of architectural design and engineering is $900,000. The Federal Transportation Administration will provide $720,000, while Jefferson Transit pays $180,000.
Transit already has $3.3 million in Federal Transportation Administration funding and a local match of $700,000 for the project.
Three years ago, the project was estimated to cost $8 million and was planned to be built this year. It was delayed for lack of funding during the economic decline.
Moving now on the design was a good idea, said Transit Board chairman David Sullivan, one of the three Jefferson County commissioners who sits on the panel.
“There’s a risk of waiting,” Sullivan said.
Drawings would be useful, whether the facility is built in 2010 or 2011, transit officials said.
The project would be constructed to be environmentally friendly, efficient and safer for transit staff than the present six-acre site and 8,214-square-foot facility at 1615 W. Sims Way, board members said.
The Transit Board settled on the site near Jefferson County International Airport after considering nearly 20 sites from Port Townsend to the Tri-Area.
A modular approach to the building, enough to meet needs for the next 10 years, would be the alternative to building for the next 20 to 30 years, Transit General Manager Dave Turissini has said.
That design approach would allow transit to add on in the future.
Accepts resignation
In other action Tuesday, the Transit Board accepted Turissini’s resignation.
He had announced his resignation last week but presented it to the board in writing Tuesday.
Turissini has accepted the express bus program manager’s position with Sound Transit in Seattle.
He will leave Jefferson Transit on Jan. 9. The Transit Board went into closed executive session under the personnel exemption of the open meetings law to discuss the transition to a new manager.
Sullivan said Carla Meyer, transit services administrator, was in line to take over as interim manager, with the board’s approval.
The transit board also authorized transit operations to extend No. 7 bus Poulsbo Saturday service to the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal between Dec. 19 and Jan. 9, after Kitsap Transit eliminated two of its existing eight round trips on Saturdays.
The two eliminated trips are the only trips on that route that connect with Jefferson Transit’s No. 7 service between Port Townsend and Poulsbo, taking riders to the Bainbridge ferry terminal for connections to Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Regular schedule
The regularly scheduled Saturday No. 7 departure will leave from the Haines Place Park-and-Ride in Port Townsend at 8:20 a.m., as it does now, and continue on to the Bainbridge Island Ferry terminal.
It will make one stop in Poulsbo at the Poulsbo Transfer Center at 9:40 a.m. and will arrive at the ferry terminal at 10:05 a.m.
That same vehicle then will leave the ferry terminal for its return trip to Port Townsend at 10:15 a.m., stopping at the Poulsbo Transfer Center at 10:35 a.m. and arriving back at Port Townsend at its regularly scheduled time of 11:49 a.m.
There will be no changes to the regularly scheduled Saturday afternoon service that departs Port Townsend at 3:22 p.m.
Transit officials said passengers should note that the only way to get beyond Poulsbo on Saturdays using Jefferson Transit between Dec. 19 and Jan. 9 is to use the 8:20 a.m. No. 7 Port Townsend departure.
After Jan. 19, Jefferson Transit will operate a modified schedule that will restore connections with remaining Kitsap Transit services.
For more information, contact Jefferson Transit at 360-385-4777.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
