(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is revised from the print version to correct an inaccuracy.)
Proponents of a street project in Montesano are frustrated by the reluctance of Grays Harbor Hospital District 2 to commit to a large street project.
According to the city, the hospital district added unreasonable stipulations to the city’s agreement while meeting a deadline at the last minute. The city plans to complete its East Pioneer project without the hospital district’s property.
The hospital district’s actions have drawn the ire of Grays Harbor County Commissioner Vickie Raines who had admonished the hospital district via email on June 9.
Background
The City of Montesano currently is in the right of way acquisition phase of its East Pioneer Project. That project will see the city redoing streets and sidewalks along East Pioneer Avenue. In order to make the sidewalks more handicap friendly, the city will widen sidewalks.
Several businesses were asked to donate a sliver of their property to the city as a right of way easement. The city also offered to complete an appraisal to pay the locations for the right of way acquisition.
As of the morning on June 9, all of the properties and businesses including NAPA Auto Parts, Gepetto’s Italian Restaurant and Sports Bar, and Anchor Bank within the East Pioneer Project area had agreed to right of way acquisition terms with the city, except Grays Harbor Hospital District 2 which owns the clinic at 319 E. Pioneer Ave.
The property in question has a lot that is about 100 feet wide, and the city was looking to acquire a strip about 6 inches to 1 foot deep to widen the sidewalk. According to Montesano CFO Doug Streeter, it is equal to one-tenth of 1 percent of the clinic’s total property. The value of that bit of property, Streeter said, is about $97.
Dispute
Some two months ago the Hospital District proposed that the city trade the right of way easement for a city-owned half-acre parcel of land near the Park and Ride in Montesano. Streeter balked at that suggestion. The city has been looking into installing a billboard at that location and the hospital district could advertise on the billboard if the city builds one, Streeter suggested.
Late on June 9, the hospital district sent an agreement to the city which included easements and a separate billboard contract. The billboard contract included a line that stated the city would owe the hospital district an unspecified amount (a blank space was left in the contract) if the billboard is not ready by December this year.
Streeter said he asked hospital district COO Larry Kahl for a specific amount, and Kahl said $40,000.
“After I got up off my floor, I got back to him and said, ‘I just want to be clear that for .0003 acres, you’re asking for that.’ His response was ‘How about $30,000,’” Streeter said.
The hospital district declined to comment on the matter.
Funding
Some $800,000 in federal funding was on the line if the project doesn’t move forward.
The $800,000 was awarded to the Grays Harbor Council of Governments (COG) as a block grant through the Surface Transportation Program administered by the Federal Highway Administration. Through a competitive process, COG awarded the funding to the City of Montesano for the East Pioneer Project. If the project hadn’t moved forward, that $800,000 would have been unobligated.
“It’s an $800,000 deadline, and if we don’t meet it, we lose $800,000, and COG loses $800,000 going forward into the foreseeable future on any transportation projects,” Streeter had said early on Monday.
In her June 9 email to the hospital district, Raines also expressed her concern about losing the funding.
“Ultimately, we are trying to manage with very restrictive time constraints, for which this project’s documents must be submitted for final approval. However, if project documents aren’t received, the funding is lost,” Raines wrote. “This will result in not only the loss of funding to the city for this specific project, but a ‘black mark’ will be placed on the Grays Harbor Council of Governments that will diminish their eligibility for the standard level of funding for at least the next decade. Therefore, the potential loss of funding to the communities of Grays Harbor over the next decade, would be in millions of dollars — monies our local jurisdictions and municipalities will not receive. We simply cannot afford to let this happen”
COG executive director Vicki Cummings applauded Raines’ email.
“There’s a timeline associated with these types of projects. To drag it out and do anything that could jeopardize the timeline puts the city in a precarious situation that could see them losing the project,” Cummings said.
Next steps
In the end, the city has decided to bypass the hospital district and move forward with the project. The city will simply skip replacing the sidewalk in front of the clinic.
The city had offered the hospital district two options. Both options saw the project move forward — one option with the hospital district involved, and the other would see the project move forward despite the hospital district’s lack of participation.
The first option was for the hospital district to accept the easements as presented by the city. That option removed any sort of a contractual obligations for a billboard.
The second option was for the hospital district to choose to not participate.
Without the hospital district property, it will cost the city some $5,000-$6,000 in consultant fees to have the project revised.
The hospital district approved a temporary construction easement with the city on June 12 for a separate water project that had been associated with the streets project until recently.
