From Mayor Dean Bunkers: The $635K is State grant money for Safe Routes to Schools. The City applied for this grant last year.  This grant provides engineering and funding to construct a sidewalk on the south of State Route 115, and crosswalks with school zone flashers. Also this grant will fund a sidewalk/bike path from JK Lewis to Ocean Lake Way along the east side of PT Brown. There are several other smaller items also, but it is best to wait for the State to engineer the project for more clarity.

At an Ocean Shores Planning Commission meeting last week, Alicia Bridges presented a spreadsheet on first quarter 2009 building permits.

He’s got a dry sense of humor, this Art Wuerth. Says if he had a daughter, he would name her “Annette.” 

He may need comic relief, from time to time, as Wuerth is the new finance director of the City of Ocean Shores. He took over for the retired George Rogers on (no joke) April 1.

“He’s got a wealth of financial experience, and he’s got an MBA degree,” says Mayor Dean Bunkers, of Wuerth. “I’m excited to have him on board.”

Bunkers and the City will need all the expertise Wuerth has, coming off a year in which drastic cuts were necessary to balance a ballooning budget. And 2009 isn’t off to such a great start, as the City’s revenue from building permits for the first quarter was down almost half from the same period in 2008.

Personally, Wuerth is looking forward to reconnecting with Ocean Shores, the setting of his first date with his wife.

The new finance man took time out from his hectic schedule to answer a few questions, via email.

from this week’s North Coast News:

Mayor Dean Bunkers and the rest of Ocean Shores will have to wait: A final decision on $2.9 million to Ocean Shores for drinking water up-grades has been delayed to April 27. The Department of Health’s doling out of Federal stimulus money for “safe drinking water” was originally scheduled for Tuesday, April 7.

 “In order to be fair to everybody we wanted to give them more time” to submit documentation, said Carolyn Cox, of the DOH.

Bunkers spoke at a public hearing at the DOH Tumwater office on Friday. He made a case for why Ocean Shores should graduate from the “draft list” it made, to the final award round.

“I feel pretty good,” Bunkers said. “I feel very confident based on the hearing we will stay where we’re at.”

This week’s top story, “The $3 million question”:

The poker table just got more crowded . . .

The “poker game” that Grays Harbor County and the City of Ocean Shores has been playing over water for the last decade now turns out to be part of a much larger scenario, involving Federal money.

Last week, the Department of Health announced its “Draft Intended Use Plan (IUP)” to use $41 million in Federal stimulus money, targeting safe drinking water.

 Ocean Shores made the draft funding list, to the tune of $2,993,202. This represents roughly half of the cost for Ocean Shores to build a new water treatment plant. City Council quickly voted 4-2 to go ahead with the project, bypassing (for the time being, at least) the option of purchasing water from the County’s new Hogan’s Corner wells.

Now comes the tricky part . . .

According to Ocean Shores Mayor Dean Bunkers, there are several scenarios:

The long-awaited, much-anticipated, all-new . . . task list, from Mayor Dean Bunkers to the Planning Commission:

Initial Planning Commission Tasks

 1.  The #2 Council Goal is to “Create a pro-active cost effective facilities improvement plan that includes an aggressive strategy to market and sell, sellable City-owned properties.”  Based on that goal I would like the Planning Commission to review their September 14, 2007 recommendations and update in accordance with present information and needs.

Specifically:

Permit Center (Parcel 0915000125000) and relocation.  Provide a recommendation for relocation of the Permit Center, and the possible consolidation of other City functions such as Court/Council Chambers. 

North Golf Course Property (15 acres, parcel 090100800006) — Address potential impact and resolutions such as relocation/reconfiguration of holes on the remaining south acreage and eastern course parcels.

Kim Property (2 parcels) – Address wetlands and possible mitigation costs if appropriate.

Public Works Land (19 acres, parcel 617121011003).

Any other City properties you deem appropriate as sellable property. 

Federal stimulus money awarded, Grays Harbor County:

Grays Harbor County. . . . . . . . $750,000 (realignment and paving project)

Aberdeen. . . . . . . .. . . . . ..  . . . $730,000 (sidewalk revitalization, Heron Street)

Hoquiam. . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . $195,000 (downtown sidewalks)

McCleary .. . . . . . . .. . . . … ….. . $86,629 (sidewalk improvements)

Housing Authority of G.H. . . . $627,184 (low-income housing repairs)

Ocean Shores. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .$0 (requested $800,000 for Roundabout/sidewalks)

Ken Lanfear, the Public Works director of Ocean Shores, emails answers to questions regarding Ocean Shores getting stiffed on Federal stimulus money:

Our original request for stimulus money was $800,000, as the estimated amount needed to complete the funding package for the four “lumped” TIB projects, which include: roundabout; Chance between the roundabout and OS Blvd; sidewalk to the library; and sidewalk to the PO.

 The reason the project cost would go substantially next year is that a part of the local match was the value of the asphalt that would go down as part of the city-wide paving LID, in the area of the above improvements. If the project is delayed until next year, the LID work would already be completed, and could not be backed into the TIB projects as match.

 I can not be more exact on additional costs for either this year or next year until bids for the work are received. We do try to estimate on the conservative side, that is, estimates a little higher than we expect bids to actually come in.

 Our feelings about not getting in the first round of stimulus money can best be described as “disappointed“.

Read by Mayor Bunkers at City Council meeting Monday night.

letters-from-citizens

Chief Styner’s Powerpoint on speeding, in Ocean Shores.speed-limit-report

Asked if the streets with the greatest percentage of speeders will get the most police attention, he answered: “Since the first of the year we have stepped up our speed enforcement efforts throughout the community. These efforts will continue as part of our daily activities.”