Ephrata road, water project funded

EPHRATA - Ephrata is likely to benefit from the recently passed state capital budget.

The budget returns roughly $324 million to the Public Works Assistance Account Loan program. The program's money was transferred from the account during the 2009-2011 biennium.

One of the about 75 projects slated for funding is the final phase of Ephrata's water and road replacement project. The city requested a $2.7 million loan to finish the project, which is replacing water pipes and repaving roads throughout the city, according to state records.

Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, supported returning funding to the program. She and Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, said they debated whether to have a capital budget at all for the biennium.

"We're committed to a state share for the K-12 schools that have their local bonds passed," she said. "At one point in time we were talking about no capital budget except for the schools, which would have been around $700 million, and that's it ... We finally kicked it loose."

She said about $50 million was taken from the Public Works Assistance Account during the next biennium, but it was lower than the about $300 million transferred during the previous biennium.

"Now is the time, if we're going to build something, to build it because we were able to take 15 percent off all of the bid amounts for the projects, prisons, the university buildings and even the K-12 buildings."

The capital budget is divided into two sections the cash portion, containing items such as the public works account and the bonded portion. Warnick and Hinkle voted for the cash portion.

Ephrata City Administrator Wes Crago said the project is fully funded and staff will be processing the project during the fall.

"We'll be ready to go to bid for the fourth phase," he said.