Contract awarded for Port Angeles wastewater capacity project
Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, April 22, 2026
PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles City Council has awarded a multi-million dollar contract for its A Street Wastewater Capacity Improvement project.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday night to award the $2.8 million contract to Interwest Construction, Inc. of Burlington.
“This has been a long-standing need within the community,” Public Works Director Scott Curtin said. “I know you’re all well aware. We’re really excited. We have other projects that are going, but this is certainly one of our high-priority ones, which has been impacting the ability for future developments.”
The project, which will address high-risk capacity constraints in the city’s sewer collection system on A Street, will start in the alley between Eighth and Ninth streets and extend out to 17th street.
“This is gonna be a huge benefit to the city and the utility and frankly developers at large,” Curtin said.
The project will be funded through several sources. The city received nearly $1.4 million from the Clallam County Opportunity Fund and also has $500,000 available in NICE Funding. The remaining funds are available in the Wastewater Utility Capital project fund.
4PA grant
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to provide a $91,000 grant to 4PA to support critical housing needs for low-income individuals and families in Port Angeles.
The funds will be used to renovate a nearly 80-year-old building which 4PA purchased to house common facilities such as the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry for its Touchstone Campus at 230 E. First St., 4PA Director Joe DeScala said during public comment while asking the council to approve the grant.
“When we started opening up the walls, we realized, man, there’s a lot of work here,” DeScala said. “So this grant would be huge for us because, if we didn’t get it, it wouldn’t stop the project, but it would definitely slow it down. And so this is gonna enable us to keep the momentum going, stay on track to overcome some of these obstacles.”
The Touchstone Campus will have 11 tiny homes in addition to the common spaces, Housing Administrator Jalyn Boado said.
The funds for the grant from the city’s Housing Rehabilitation Fund will come from Affordable Housing Sales Tax collection provided by House Bill 1590, according to city documents.
Lodging tax
A good portion of Tuesday’s meeting was devoted to a discussion on the recommendations the city council received from the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) for the second round of funds for 2026.
The committee recommended fully funding the following 10 applicants: $12,000 for Port Angeles Waterfront District; $40,000 for the city of Port Angeles Public Works Department; $17,210 for Feiro Marine Life Center; $12,700 for Port Angeles Waterfront District; $27,000 for Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission’s co-op; $33,000 for Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission’s annual budget; $5,000 for GOPA LLC; $3,000 for Story People of Clallam County; $7,000 for Port Angeles Community Players; and $42,500 for Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts.
The final applicant for funds was a request of $78,710 by the city to cover the full costs of oversight for LTAC funds. At the Feb. 3 meeting, the city council approved a resolution that would allocate 12 percent of the available lodging tax budget to program administration and fiscal oversight, said Courtney Bornsworth, the city’s natural resources and grants administrator.
The LTAC reviewed the city’s request and chose to fund it at $20,000, leaving nearly $60,000 of oversight costs to be subsidized by the city’s general fund.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the city council was presented with two recommendations on which to take action. Option A was to modify the LTAC recommendation to fully fund all requests, including the city’s oversight costs, and Option B was to adopt the LTAC’s recommendations.
If the city council approved Option B, city staff would have had to make several reductions to program expenses, including removing the legal department’s review of all LTAC/LTAX documents as well as the department’s participation at LTAC meetings, limiting the LTAC meetings to a maximum of twice a year, only allowing one request for proposals period per year, regardless of funding levels, and not providing reimbursements if recipients fail to submit an invoice to the Community and Economic Development Department.
Council member Amy Miller called the proposed program reductions unacceptable while making a motion to approve Option A. Her motion passed 5-2 with council members Drew Schwab and John Hamilton opposed.
Schwab said he wanted more documentation on the time staff takes to administer grants while Hamilton said he opposed overruling the LTAC.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
