By Jessica Keller
The Courier-Herald
A bridge spanning the White River that would eventually connect the Buckley and Enumclaw portions of the Foothills Trail is in the works, but the four jurisdictions involved in the project are still ironing out the details of an interlocal agreement.
Officials from Buckley and Enumclaw and Pierce and King counties, plus state representative Jan Shabro, met July 14 to discuss the bridge project and work out the logistics.
It was the second time the four parties have talked about the project, having met in June when they decided the lead agency for the project, the location of the bridge and if all four parties were willing to contribute.
Tom Eksten, the trails program manager for King County Parks, said during the meeting he had planned to bring an interlocal agreement back to the committee, but when he began the process, he realized more issues had yet to be discussed before an agreement was drafted.
One of the big issues discussed was how the cost was to be divided, and how the bills will be paid for. The group decided, since King County was the lead agency, King County would invoice the remaining jurisdictions for their portions of the cost.
The agencies, however, have yet to come up with the cost breakdown for the project, beginning with the first stage, paying for the design costs.
At the June meeting, Eksten and Pierce County parks director Jan Wolcott said both counties were willing to pay for a portion of the design costs. The suggested cost breakdown had King County picking up $150,000, Pierce County $50,000, and Enumclaw and Buckley $50,000 each for the estimated $300,000 project.
But those preliminary numbers were tabled at last week's meeting.
Eksten told the committee, King County's contribution of $150,000 was reduced to $100,000 when his department was told to trim its budget.
Pierce County budgeted the $50,000 agreed upon, Wolcott said, for the trail design from the capital facilities account, "So it's in the bank," he said.
The two smaller agencies, however, could not say how much money they would be able to contribute.
Buckley City Administrator Dave Schmidt said the budget process for Buckley isn't decided until October, and until a more formal cost estimate can be presented to the City Council, it isn't something council members are likely to vote on. Eksten agreed to have King County engineers come up with a preliminary cost estimate.
Enumclaw Mayor John Wise, however, questioned whether King County and Enumclaw should be responsible for the majority of the design costs, with the Pierce County side of the bridge paying for less. Even with the King County budget cuts, with the proposed breakdown of Enumclaw contributing $50,000, the King County side would be paying $150,000 at least, to Pierce County's $100,000.
"And I didn't think that was fair to begin with," Wise said.
He also suggested Enumclaw should not be responsible for so much of the cost because Enumclaw is not directly connected to where the bridge would be built.
Wise said while Enumclaw would like to see the project completed, since Enumclaw's actual connection to the bridge site is remote, he anticipates it being hard to sell the council on putting up a lot of money for the project.
When asked if Pierce County had the same reservations, Wolcott said no.
The end of the meeting, however, concluded on a lighter note, with all parties agreeing they still want the project to be completed. They are scheduled to meet again in August to continue discussing an interlocal agreement and cost break downs.
Jessica Keller can be reached at jkeller@courierherald.com
