BY PEPPER FISHER-
PORT ANGELES – The City of Port Angeles has found a way to cover its half of the $6 million shortfall needed to build a new Joint Public Safety Facility which will house the county’s emergency operations center and the regional 911 dispatch center, and the City Council approved the staff’s recommendations for doing so on Tuesday.
As we reported in August, Clallam County and city officials have been scrambling to secure at least $3 million each to complete the facility, which is estimated to cost nearly $20 million. About $14.3 million had already been raised, much of it through grants from FEMA and other agencies. But there’s a ticking clock. The total funds need to be in place no later than the end of this month or the designer architect won’t be able to provide the needed bid documents before the FEMA grant expires.
City staff managed to piece together the money from a variety of sources, including use of funds collected from the 911 sales tax at present and over the next 2 years, using real estate excise tax (REET) funds that had been earmarked for other projects, and temporarily reducing the 25% fund balance requirement in the PenCom operational fund to 10% and rebuilding the balance after the facility is complete.
As for the County’s half of the 6 million dollars needed, Sheriff Brian King told KONP that they have found the funds and will be presenting the plan to County Commissioners for approval at their next meeting.