PORT TOWNSEND — The city of Port Townsend has secured $5.3 million in transportation grants — almost every grant it pursued, Public Works Director Steve King said.
Streets budgeting conversations were held in a November city council meeting as the city moved through its 2025 budgeting process. Last month, a number of grant successes came through, King said during Monday’s council workshop.
“Literally a couple of weeks later, we got announcements from the (state) Transportation Improvement Board that we were successful with grants,” King said. “Then shortly after the holiday we got word from Washington state that we’re in the shortlist for grants through the state programs.”
The grants, to be paid out and obligated over the next three years, need matching funds, King said.
“I’m always saying it would be a great problem to have, too much grant money and not enough funds to match it,” King said. “I really didn’t expect to be here today to be going, ‘Oh my God, we got everything we asked for.’”
King clarified that the city had been awarded almost every transportation grant for which it applied.
“My immediate thought was, ‘We don’t have enough match funding,’” he said.
But King said Monday he didn’t think the budget was over-obligated.
King’s slideshow featured expected revenue from the city’s Transportation Benefit District (TBD), about $4.5 million over the next three years. It also showed proposed updates for the 2025 budget’s first supplement; about $4 million in TBD funds are plotted.
King said the remaining TBD funds should be just enough for contingencies.
“I think we’re using the taxpayers’ resources right up to the maximum extent possible,” he said. “At this point, we do not need a general fund infusion to meet these grant requirements.”
Accessing the general fund should be as a backup plan, King said, if the transportation budget becomes over-committed.
The workshop presentation included recommendations for future council actions.
King recommended that Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) revenues be kept available to match funds from the Recreation and Conservation Office, should the city receive grants from the state agency.
He recommended that the council pass an ordinance allowing for interfund loans, to borrow from the general fund as needed and to be repaid by future TBD revenues.
He recommended that council members approve moving forward with the new grants. Approval for grants is likely to come before the council next week, possibly as a part of the consent agenda.
Also, he recommended the council approve the hiring of an additional transportation engineer.
“We don’t have enough people to deliver all of these projects,” King said.
Without adding to the team, public works may struggle to finish the work at a competitive pace, which is important for receiving more funding moving forward, King said.
A request to authorize the new position is likely to come before the council next week, King said.
King said community partnerships with the Port Townsend School District, DASH (Disability Awareness Starts Here), PT Main Street, Jefferson County Farmers Market and Jefferson Transit look good to grant-awarding agencies.
________
Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
