Othello receives $50K for road safety planning

OTHELLO — Monday evening’s regular Othello City Council meeting saw the approval of a contract with SCJ Alliance Planners to update the city’s Local Road Safety Plan, as well as approval of the sale of surplus equipment and the awarding of a bid from pavement repair. 

“Ultimately, what we're looking for is an approval from council to move forward with the contract with SCJ Alliance,” Finance Officer Spencer Williams said. “The city received a $50,000 grant through QuadCo (Regional Transportation Planning Organization) to help pay for an update to our Local Road Safety Plan, and this update to that plan will help identify roads around town, driving conditions, areas that we need to focus our money on for safety and road improvements. Also, having this plan in place will make it easier for us to apply for future grants for street and road funding. Really, that's it in a nutshell. We will eventually need to have a budget amendment to include this grant in our budget, but it'll be a wash – money in, money out.”

The agenda memo elaborated on the grant funding and the purpose of the safety plan. 

“The LRSP takes existing crash data for the city of Othello and summarizes this information to identify systemic causes of and specific locations with high accident rates,” the memo said. “With this information, the LRSP will recommend potential improvements or changes that will address issues and the public’s needs.”

The council then unanimously approved the contract with SCJ Alliance for a cost not to exceed about $44,800. According to the staff report, the remaining $5,200 of the grant would cover the cost of city staff working on the project. 

The council discussed allowing the Public Works Department to sell one of its two backhoes as surplus equipment. Council member Corey Everett said he did not want to sell it. 

“I have a real issue with surplusing good equipment that, without a doubt in my mind says, within the next couple years we're going to buy another one … I think we're going to take a loss on it and there's no reason to sell that backhoe,” Everett said. 

Council member Genna Dorow said the backhoe is more than thirty years old. Dorow said Public Works intends to purchase a $240,000 front-end loader.

“(Public Works staff) said that they didn't need two backhoes, they needed the front-end loader and they were going to surplus one backhoe,” Dorow said. “They were saying that they could sell the backhoe and that money, you could count that kind of as an offset of some of the costs of the front-end loader.”

Everett said he would prefer for Public Works to keep the second backhoe in case the other backhoe breaks down. Council member Mark Snyder said that the city could use other machines such as its loader as backup equipment. 

The council then voted 5 to 1 to approve the sale of the surplus equipment list. Everett voted against the motion. 

In the meeting’s consent agenda, the council also unanimously approved awarding a bid for the 2024 crack seal project — sealing cracks in various Othello roads — to BCV Inc. for $75,600. 

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

    Othello City Council members, from left to right, Genna Dorow, John Lallas, Darryl Barnes and Mark Snyder listen to a presentation during Monday’s regular meeting at Othello City Hall. The meeting featured a discussion of approving the sale of surplus Public Works Department equipment.