Cowlitz County staff seek approvals for landfill monitoring contracts, water‑main bid and BRIC flood‑study application; update given on International Way pipe,

Cowlitz County Public Works and Public Services staff reviewed a slate of projects and procurement items at a board workshop, asking the commissioners to authorize signature of grant amendments, move several contracts to the consent calendar, and note progress on emergency repairs and capital projects.

Savannah Clement, Public Services, asked the board to allow the commissioner to sign an amendment to the county’s Local Solid Waste Financial Assistance (LSWIFA) grant. Clement said the two‑year grant (July–June) totals about $484,000 on a biannual basis; the county is reimbursed about $363,000 over two years under the current split. Staff proposed reallocating roughly $98,100 among three uses—household hazardous waste (MRW facility), rural recycling, and a homeless‑encampment cleanup program at Camp Hope—while leaving the overall grant total unchanged. Clement asked that the signed amendment be added to the consent agenda next Tuesday.

County Engineer Susan Eugenis presented several Public Works items. On the Tower Road / Juanita Way booster pump and water‑main project, the county opened bids and received 11 proposals; Eugenis reported the low responsive bidder as "Rachi and" with a low bid of $1,549,631.76 and recommended awarding the contract to that low bidder after document review.

Eugenis also described two professional service agreements with PBS for monitoring at the county landfills. One is a task‑order, not‑to‑exceed contract for surface‑emissions monitoring at Headquarters Landfill and Tenet Way Landfill, capped at $150,000; the first task will be developing monitoring plans and the subsequent work will be billed at approved unit rates. The second contract is a fixed‑fee agreement (about $161,000) for quarterly ground‑ and surface‑water sampling and reporting, including quarterly reports and a year‑end summary. Eugenis said samples and reports will be submitted to the review agency each quarter.

Eugenis briefed the board on an emergency contract at International Way. Contractors installed bypass pumps and made a permanent repair to a 15‑inch diameter pipe that had a bored hole; crews inspected manhole‑to‑manhole segments with camera and had cleared most sand from the line at the time of the meeting. A temporary cold patch had been placed and inspectors expected the site to be cleared by the end of the day.

Eugenis described a County resolution designating an applicant agent for the FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. The county intends to submit a pre‑application for a planning study of chronic flooding in the Westover/Lomar area (frequent roadway flooding, some home flooding), a longstanding problem county staff say dates to the 1980s. If awarded, the planning study would provide benefit‑cost analysis and options (buyouts, channel improvements, storage areas, or raising/remediating homes) to pursue construction grants later.

Other items: a possession and use agreement for the Shadow Mountain Reservoir project (consent item); annual Title VI reports required by WSDOT certifying nondiscrimination in federally funded outreach (staff said the county is in compliance); an update on the Hall of Justice investment‑grade audit (IGA) — planned HVAC, electrical upgrades and potential energy‑savings work with Milig; an annex remediation update and plans for tenant improvements and Office of Public Defense (OPD) occupying space at the Hall of Justice annex; and a temporary construction easement request for the Dike Road reconstruction project (milepost ~3.05–5.32) that must clear an Army Corps 408 review process before bidding.

Next steps: staff requested authority to have the commissioner sign the LSWIFA amendment and to place the PBS contracts, bid award recommendation, BRIC applicant‑agent resolution and other items on next week’s consent agenda. Staff will return with final contract documents and formal agenda items for board action.