Soap Lake council passes 6-year Transpo Plan.

SOAP LAKE - The Soap Lake City Council unanimously passed a motion Wednesday to update and amend the city’s Six-Year Transportation Improvement Plan. With the motion passed, the Council will now submit the plan to the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board.

Once the plan is submitted to Washington state, improvements are scheduled to begin this year, according to an informational packet distributed by the City Council during Wednesday’s meeting. Those improvements will be funded primarily with grant money from the TIB but with supplementary funds from the City of Soap Lake. Most of the improvements consist of pulverizing existing roads and overlaying streets with fresh asphalt, as well as reconstructing or adding sidewalks, curbs and gutters, storm drainage and light fixtures.

According to city documents, the top-priority street for improvement is Second Avenue Southeast, which is scheduled to be fully repaved this year. It will cost $270,000 total, $256,000 of which will be provided by the state.

Following Second Avenue Southeast, the packet lists Canna Street as the next priority for reconstruction, scheduled to begin in 2023 and last through 2024. The costs are a little higher, with a total of $650,000 in costs, $585,000 of which will be provided by TIB. Also beginning in 2023, the third priority is First Avenue Northeast, which will cost roughly $575,000, approximately $550,000 of which will be funded from grant money.

In addition to the motion to update the Transportation plan, the Council unanimously passed a motion to allocate up to $4,000 of funds from a canceled hydroplane project to the Soap Lake Chamber of Commerce for operations of the city’s visitor center in order to increase its open hours.

During the meeting, the Council decided to withdraw from the agenda the budget amendment to move funds from the stagnant Lava Lamp fund into other budgets. Council members decided that there was still much involved in the decision and that there needed to be a very complete and clear plan on how those funds would be spent before any motion could be put forward.

Several other entries on the agenda were tabled for future discussion, including the subjects of installing servers in City Hall, adoption of the Soap Lake Shoreline Management Program periodic review and discussion related to short-term vacation rentals in Soap Lake.

Gabriel Davis may be reached via email at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.