PORT ANGELES — The city of Port Angeles has identified a potential $3 million that can be used to help cover costs of the estimated $20 million public safety facility anticipated to be built by the city and Clallam County.
The joint public safety facility will house the county’s emergency operations center and the 911 dispatch center, which is currently located at the Clallam County courthouse.
Grant funding secured for the project totals about $16 million. That leaves about $3 million each for the city and county to figure out how fund, according to previous reports.
City staff identified four funding options that are projected to dedicate a total of $3 million to the project, city finance director Sarina Carrizosa said.
The first bucket of funding is future capital funds garnered from the 911 one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax. Seventy-five percent of the revenue generated from that tax is dedicated to Peninsula Communications’ operational costs, Carrizosa said, while the other 25 percent is reserved as capital funds.
The capital funds collected to date are counted in the $16 million that already has been identified for the project.
However, given that staff believe the project will take at least 24 months to complete, Carrizosa said an additional $1.1 million in capital funds likely will be collected and can be dedicated to the facility.
Carrizosa also said the PenCom operational budget likely will generate about $220,000 more than it spends, based on the current budget and predicted trends, and that could go to the public safety facility.
The third bucket involves reducing PenCom’s operational reserve from the 25 percent fund balance requirement to 10 percent over the next two years. That will free up about $600,000 to be used for the project, Carrizosa said.
After the building is completed, the reserves would then be rebuilt to the 25 percent fund balance requirement.
The final funding source involves re-prioritizing a few transportation projects planned for next year, and that would free up real estate excise tax (REET) funds.
The first would be the Lauridsen Boulevard reconstruction, which Carrizosa recommended should be moved to 2029.
“[This area] is not failing to the point where it couldn’t be delayed for the foreseeable future,” city Public Works Director Mike Healy said.
The project requires “a substantial amount of grant funding” before it can be started, City Manager Nathan West said. That funding is unlikely to be secured by next year, which could lead to a delay anyway.
Additionally, Mayor Kate Dexter said the city should postpone the Lauridsen Boulevard project based on the state’s planned Tumwater fish passage barrier project that will shut down parts of that road next year.
“Closing the highway from Black Diamond to the airport turnoff seems like not a great plan for me,” she said.
The other project, the intersection control study, could be moved to 2027, Carrizosa said.
Carrizosa added the city could use $400,000 in transportation benefit district funds for the traffic signal interconnect/preemption project, which would free more REET funds for the public safety facility.
In total, the reprioritizations would reserve at least $1.07 million in REET funding for the project.
Any REET funding used will be replaced by future 911 tax funds, council member Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin said.
That will require the REET funds to be loaned to the project with interest, Carrizosa said.
Additionally, Schromen-Wawrin said the REET funds are a preliminary commitment to be used as a last resort.
“I’m very hesitant of taking money from transportation projects in order to make this project pencil out,” he said.
The council also will ask Clallam County to move forward with two contingency funding options for the city’s portion of the funding.
First, to place an additional one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax on the special election ballot in February, which would generate an estimated $2.1 million additional dollars that could be used for the facility.
Second, to use the 911 sales tax funds to bond for additional needed costs that could be repaid by the same source in the future.
The resolution approving the use and priorities of those funds and authorizing the additional steps was passed by the council 4-3. Dexter and council members Amy Miller and Brendan Meyer voted against the specifics of the resolution.
________
Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
