WARDEN — The city of Warden was recently awarded a $1.77 million grant from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board for reconstructing First Street North, according to City Administrator Kriss Shuler, who also said the city’s Parks and Recreation Open Space Plan process is going well.

“The TIB award is for First Street North,” Shuler said. “It's an industrial road that leads down to a number of agricultural businesses. So, the award was for the $1,772,000 for the reconstruction of that roadway. And the city’s share on top of that will be $93,300. That's 5%. That is the match that we have for that TIB project.”

Shuler said the grant would be paid in the form of a reimbursement and aside from the city’s matching funds is a full grant. 

“It was this summer, earlier this summer, that we did apply for it. So this year, we applied when their programs opened up,” Shuler said. “That is probably the second time that we have applied for that particular road project.”

Shuler said it was nice to finally have the project scheduled and part of the city’s Transportation Improvement Plan. 

“That was one of the largest awards in this area for that program,” Shuler said. “For TIB, as far as I know, this is probably the largest one that the city has received, but costs go up, so it's relative.”

Shuler elaborated on how often the city receives TIB awards.

“Lately, we've probably had one per year, at least, over a number of years, whether it be a sidewalk grant or a resurfacing project or a reconstruction project,” she said.

The project likely won’t start until 2025, Shuler said.

“By the time you go through the process of the design and getting everything approved, which will be done next year, and then going out to bid, I'm anticipating 2025.”

Shuler presented notice of the award at the Dec. 12 Warden City Council meeting. At the meeting, the council also started the closeout process on a different TIB project that was completed earlier in the year, the North County Road reconstruction project.

During that meeting, Shuler also updated the council on the Parks and Recreation Open Space Plan process and that the city’s planner, SCJ Alliance, is hoping for more community surveys before moving on. In a later interview, Shuler explained the process in more detail.

“SCJ alliance is doing a little push on some more outreach to the community to get some more surveys done, and that is in relationship to down the road when this plan is done,” Shuler said, “when you go out for funding…(agencies) want to see that the community's input is being followed (and ask) ‘What did they want? What are they trying to update and upgrade? What did your community ask for?’ They're just not getting a lot of responses, or not as much as they would like.”

The planning process has still received significant public input so far, Shuler said. 

“At the end of October, we actually had a local workshop, where our SCJ Alliance and (Washington State University) landscape architects were together here and met with people, and now they're just doing a social media push, and then I believe in January they're going to have another workshop,” she said.

The Dec. 12 meeting also featured a ceremony recognizing Mayor Tony Massa and Council member Lori Watson-Esparza’s time with the council, which will come to an end Jan. 1. According to the agenda memo, Watson-Esparza has served as a council member since 2019, and Massa has served as Mayor since 2012, before which Massa served as a council member from 2005 to 2011.

After recognizing Massa and Watson-Esparza, Shuler swore in Warden’s new Mayor Rosealia Martinez and new council members Amalia Campos, Jesus Martinez and Brittney Pittman, who will all begin their terms Jan. 1. 

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. A resident of Othello, Davis covers south Grant County communities and Adams County.

    According to Warden City Administrator Kriss Shuler, the city received a $1.77 million grant from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board for reconstructing First Street North, highlighted in blue.