County revises capital grant award

Last week Wahkiakum County officials announced the award of grants from their Capital Projects Fund for local government entities.

This week, county commissioners announced they had mistakenly awarded one project. They rescinded the award from the Capital Projects Fund but in turn funded it from Flood Control Fund.

The project was for Fire District 4 which would use the $9,000 grant to purchase and equip a small truck for rescue responses in times of flooding.

The problem with the award, commission Chair Lisa Marsyla explained, is that a vehicle doesn't qualify as a capital project. Under the state law that sets up the Capital Project Funding, the funds must be used for infrastructure. Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow noticed the discrepency last week when he started to process the grant awards.

Marsyla, who chaired the committee which reviewed the grant requests and prioritized the awards, acknowledged the mistake.

The committee should have seen it, she said, but the wording didn't make it clear at the start that the money would go for a vehicle.

Commissioners Blair Brady and Dan Cothren had no problem finding other funding for the project.

"It will be used for rescuing people," Cothren said.

As reported in last week's Eagle, commissioners received 14 funding requests and funded eight for just over $100,000 in capital improvement projects.

Money for the projects comes from a 0.25 percent tax on real estate sales, with sales of large timber parcels providing most of the funds. By state law, the funds can only be used on capital projects.