Someone's loss is Cheney's gain

Thanks to another area agency’s inability to obligate funding, the city of Cheney is positioned to begin work on a major road project ahead of schedule.

The City Council signed a pair of agreements at its May 26 meeting allowing it to receive federal funding and begin engineering work on its Betz Road Preservation project. The $352,000 project will repave Betz from State Route 904 to North Sixth Street, as well as provide installation of ADA-compliant curb ramps.

The city is eligible to receive 86.5 percent of the total project cost in federal funding, $302,900. Obligation of the grant funding required the council to authorize Mayor Tom Trulove to sign a Local Agency Federal Aid Project Prospectus between the city and the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The council also signed a local agency agreement authorizing spending $27,200 in federal funds on preliminary engineering for the project. Public Works Director Todd Ableman said the Betz preservation project was originally scheduled for sometime in 2017-18, but because another agency was not ready to obligate the funds, it allowed Cheney to move its project ahead in order to meet regional funding goals.

“With the funding, we are able to bump the engineering up to this year, with construction hopefully taking place next year,” Ableman added.

The council also approved a project prospectus and local agency agreement with WSDOT to receive federal funding and begin preliminary engineering on its Betz/Washington Pedestrian Safety Improvement project. The city will receive $76,100 in federal funding on the $88,000 project, with council agreeing to spend $7,600 on engineering.

The project will include installation of ADA-compliant curb ramps, pedestrian crossing markings and flashing beacon pedestrian crossing signals at five intersection locations on Betz Road and Washington Street — Silverthorne Lane, Normal Park Road, North Sixth Street, Harvest Bluff and Mike McKeehan Way. As with the Betz Road project, the city will make up the difference between federal funding and the project’s total cost.

Council also awarded an $119,735 contract to DJ’s Electrical Inc. for rerouting power lines near the intersection of First Street and Cheney-Spokane Road. The work will move the feeder cable system near the Cheney Trading Company sign at the corner of First Street and Cheney-Spokane Road, moving the feeder away from the sign, as well as consolidate two road-crossing cable systems into one.

Light Director Joe Noland said DJ’s Electrical was the lowest of five companies, bidding $139,400.13 before tax. The final contract price comes from deducting over $20,000 of city-supplied materials, something Noland said they wanted to do for bonding and capitalization purposes.

Finally, the council approved the first reading of an ordinance making changes to the municipal code chapter on disposing of surplus property. The changes add new language regarding bid-opening procedures, negotiations as well as how to deal with utility property such as transformers, wire and other items that could be disposed of through a recycling or other specialized company.

“Kind of using some industry best practices in doing that,” City Administrator Mark Schuller told the council.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.