The latest developments, decisions and changes coming out of our spring board meeting, held in Olympia.
The full board meeting minutes will be available once approved.
DEVELOPMENTS
- County Engineer Appointments Kittitas County appointed Cameron Curtis, P.E. as County Engineer on April 1, 2024.
- Vacancies Three counties (Asotin, Garfield and Pacific) have county engineer vacancies. Kevin Poole, P.E. was just hired as the Garfield Interim County Engineer effective April 23, 2024, while they recruit for a permanent replacement.
DECISIONS
- Certified Resolution 2024-004 – To Approve Annual Certification for which Certificates of Good Practice were given to 35 of the 39 counties.
- Conditional Certificate of Good Practice were extended to Asotin, Clallam, Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties, with stipulations listed for each county they must abide by to stay in compliance (per Resolution 2024-004).
- Certified Resolution 2024-002 - Apportion RATA Funds to Regions which authorized the accrued amount of $7,023,744 deposited to the RATA for December 2023, January, February and March 2024 be apportioned to the regions by the established 2023-2025 biennium regional percentages after setting aside $233,722 for administration.
- Certified Resolution 2024-003 – To Approve 2021-2023 RAP Projects which allocated 100% of Estimated 2023-2025 RATA Revenue to the listed projects in the five regions.
- WAC 136-165-020 Requirements for consideration of RATA fund increases Washington State Register (WSR) 24-08-008 adopts an emergency WAC change to WAC 136-165-020. The County Road Administration Board administers the Rural Arterial Program (RAP) which provides grant funds for capital improvements on county road arterials and collectors. Counties may request a one-time increase in funding for a project. Currently, that request is capped at 25% of the grant amount. This emergency WAC amendment will eliminate the 25% cap on the amount a county may request. Emergency WAC changes are only in effect for 120 days from the date of adoption.
CHANGES
- Preliminary Proposals 2025-2027 Biennium The Board initiated a call for new projects at its October 2023 meeting, to be funded from the RATA account based on revenue forecasts of the 2025-2027 biennium. Preliminary prospectus proposals have been received in RAP Online (due March 1, 2024). There were a total of 106 projects submitted, totaling a request of $190,581,284. This is the first phase of project application in the RAP cycle for the ’25-’27 biennium. Counties are limited to a maximum of 5 project submittals at this time but are not limited to the total dollar request. Total requested RATA funds from preliminary proposals is $190.58 million. The ’25-’27 call for projects is estimated at a $70 million revenue, of which approximately $29 million will be allocated to current partially funded projects, with the remaining $41 million to new proposals. CRAB staff is scheduling project reviews with each county to generate the surface scoring and preliminary project array, which will be presented to the Board at the July meeting. San Juan County chose not to submit any new projects for various reasons, so the NW Region county limits will be adjusted accordingly. Final Prospectuses will be due on September 1, 2024 where the counties will be limited in RATA request to their county and submittal limits. Staff anticipates that fewer than half of the projects will be submitted as final proposals as the counties prioritize these projects.
COUNTY OVERVIEW & PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
Presentations were made to the board by Thurston, Lewis and Pierce Counties.
