PORT ANGELES – A proposed Joint Public Safety Facility in western Port Angeles needs more money.
Clallam County and the City of Port Angeles are about 10 million dollars short to get the facility built.
This week, county officials gave the go ahead to apply for a possible second allocation from federal funding already earmarked for the project.
County administrator Todd Mielke says he’s unsure if the project can get that appropriation.
“There’s, at this point, some federal funding. We’re not sure if we’re eligible or not because we’ve received money from this pot once before and ambiguous language basically talks about only funding projects once. But it seems to also suggested there may be some exceptions to the rule yet to be defined. So we thought ‘well, let’s go ahead’,” Mielke told commissioners Monday.
But Clallam County Sheriff Brian King says after a meeting with Congressman Derek Kilmer last week, they are more confident the county could “double dip” into the appropriation.
“Leading up to our meeting with Congressman Kilmer on Thursday, my team had been researching this discussion point. We were not very optimistic that this would be a possibility. But after meeting with him, we feel there’s actually a much stronger possibility that we could double dip into this one and get another appropriation,” said King.
King says they also discovered a grant writer that live locally that will be helpful.
The county has already secured about 10 million dollars in grant money. The county and city have pledged a combined 1.4 million dollars. Both entities say they will continue seeking other grant funding.
The county wants to move its emergency operations center out of the courthouse which would be prone to failing in an earthquake. The city is looking to expand and move its regional police and fire dispatch center. The joint center would be located at a parcel off Edgewood Drive in west Port Angeles.