Stimulus funding costs Sammamish
June 10, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
After the City Council said the second phase of construction on East Lake Sammamish Parkway would not cost any city dollars, it did.
At its May 19 meeting, the council unanimously approved $93,361 for a contract with Perteet, a consultant working on the current East Lake Sammamish Parkway. Perteet will help with revising plans for drainage and retaining walls, as well as meeting a special requirement from the federal government for stimulus funding.
“Since this is a new funding program, the rules and requirements were not completely defined until recently,” a Public Works Department report said.
Sammamish had already approved $6.1 million of city funds for the first phase of construction on the parkway.
The project expands the parkway from two to three lanes. It also adds bike lanes, a sidewalk and a sand vault for filtering pollutants and preventing erosion.
The construction will run from the intersection of Inglewood Hill Road to Northeast 18th Place.
The city then received $3.5 million in federal stimulus funding to pay for a second phase of parkway construction, about .25 miles, including a 64-foot-long bridge.
When the City Council voted to accept the stimulus funding, it did so believing that no city funds would be used in the second phase of construction.
But the Public Works Department failed to realize that design work needed to coordinate the two phases of parkway construction could not be funded by federal stimulus dollars, the Public Works Department report said.
“There is some work preceding the construction phase that must be paid using city funds,” the report said. “It was simply an oversight.”
Council approves
other contracts
At the May 19 meeting, the council voted to pay a consultant $100,000 to help plan the infrastructure of the Town Center. The firm, David Evans and Associates, will advise the city on zoning and development regulations in the Town Center. The funding comes from money already set aside in the Community Development Department budget for 2009.
The council approved a second contract related to Town Center infrastructure consulting June 2. The council approved a $16,500 contract with RH2 for finance-related advising.
One of the tasks listed in the contract was to “identify financial tools and potential mechanisms for funding Town Center infrastructure,” including both city-funded and developer-funded methods. RH2 would also research grant, loan, bond and enterprise fund transfer opportunities to help pay for the Town Center.
RH2 was an attractive resource to the city because of its expertise in helping with the city of Issaquah’s development projects at the Issaquah Highlands and Talus, according to Project Manager Michael Matthias.
As with the David Evans and Associates contract, the funding for RH2’s work was within the Community Development Department’s budget.
The council also approved a $50,000 contract with PACE Engineering as an on-call consultant for survey work related to the city’s new Maintenance and Operations Facility.
That facility will be on 244th Avenue, north of Rachel Carson Elementary School, and will largely replace the role of the current facility at Beaver Lake Park.
The contract extends to the end of 2010, though there is no guarantee that any or all of it will be used. This was an extension of a $15,000 contract with PACE approved by the council in February.
The council also amended several contracts at its June 2 meeting.
Site Workshop, a consultant redesigning the new lower Sammamish Commons Park, will receive an additional $5,850.
The original contract did not include a staircase and the Freed House relocation, resulting in unexpected costs.
The redesigned park would have a new point of entry, a new parking lot, a site for the Freed house and permanent access, including parking, for the Sween House.
The redesign is scheduled for completion by December 2009.
The council approved two amendments related to the Shoreline Master Plan update.
The update would meet state Department of Ecology requirements to set policies and regulations that better protect lake shorelines from development by the end of 2009.
The consultant overseeing the update, ESA Adolfson, will receive an additional $26,592 to continue working on the update.
The original $69,958 contract has more than doubled — the contract now totals $195,394.
Maren Van Nostrand, the city’s project manager on the Shoreline Master Plan update, will receive an additional $15,000 to finish working on the update, increasing her total contract to $120,000.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
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