Transportation Improvement Board awards Brewster Old 97 funds

BREWSTER – A long-sought approval from the state Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) just saved the city more than $180,000 in matching funds for the Old Highway 97 improvement project scheduled for next year.

City Finance Director Misty Ruiz advised the Brewster City Council of the savings windfall at its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday, Dec. 15.

“This one is super-exciting,” said Ruiz. “Last year we talked about the Old 97 project where our match was going to be $200,000. Well, our match is now going to be $182,000 less than that because of the grant match we received from the TIB.”

Council member Jan May, somewhat taken aback by the sum saved, asked Ruiz to repeat the figure, which is $182,500 to be more precise.

Mayor Art Smyth expressed an “it’s-about-time” concurrence with the TIB award.

“In all the years past we have never been able to get TIB money and finally we got it,” said Smyth, “and Misty deserves all the credit.”

The council responded with a well-deserved round of applause for their tenacious finance guru.

Ruiz added that the city also received $24,225 from the TIB for a chipseal project done last year.

The council approved a local agency agreement required by the Washington State Department of Transportation to split off engineering costs-which the city has been paying-from construction so the city can be reimbursed money spent on engineering expenses.

The city voted to change its website services to Revize Web Services which both Ruiz and Smyth said is a more user friendly format and allows users to make necessary programming adjustments with Microsoft Word.

Public Works Director Lee Webster reported that pending Canyon Wellhouse No. 2 is nearing closeout pending the arrival of final items like the mechanical control center and council approval of a change order to remove and dispose some excavated asbestos pipe and a few other items.

Webster shared photos of challenging snow plowing and removal on city streets that required double shifts for both city loaders to keep up with demand.

“We have two loaders now,” said Webster as he thanked the council for approving the purchase of the second – and larger - surplus Case loader. He showed photos of the four-yard loader bucket piled with nearly eight yards of snow in one scoop.

“I don’t know where we would be without it,” Webster said of the Case acquisition.

Ruiz noted that the combination of fuel costs – about $4,000 additional per month – and employee time adds up to “a real budget-buster” to cope with heavy snows.

The recent snow accumulations in the city and at the airport combined with the savings from TIB award provided an effective segue for Webster to suggest the city look for an industrial strength loader-mounted snowblower to help keep the city streets and airport runways clear. After Webster played a video of a snowblower making impressive headway on one of the Washington passes, the council voted in favor of the purchase.

Brewster Police Chief Marcos Ruiz updated the council regarding the incident involving a student threat to shoot up the Brewster Middle School on Monday, Dec. 5. Ruiz said he was pleased with the rapid response of his department to resolve the issue after it was alerted Sat., Dec. 3. Ruiz said extra officers were on scene and at the school that Monday to reassure students, staff, and parents that all was safe.