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Skagit County commissioners adopt second-quarter 2025 budget amendments including ARPA funds for downtown GTE building purchase
Summary
Commissioners approved a slate of supplemental budget amendments covering public health grants, a jail van, facility acquisition funded with ARPA revenue replacement, and other items as detailed in department requests.
Skagit County commissioners voted 2-0 to adopt the county's second-quarter 2025 supplemental budget amendments after a public hearing and department work session. The amendments allocate grant receipts, adjust timing-driven public-health budgets, and apply ARPA revenue replacement to an expected purchase of the GTE building in downtown Mount Vernon.
Tricia Logue, county administrator and director of budget and finance, said the amendments were advertised and discussed in a departmental work session before the hearing. The largest items include $1,250,000 of ARPA revenue replacement routed through Administrative Services to the facility fund to pay for acquisition of the GTE property in downtown Mount Vernon and a $1,230,000 ARPA-related facility improvement allocation to fund the same purchase. Logue said the GTE building closing is expected in mid-July.
Other amendments approved in the public hearing packet include a $3,500 general-fund addition for Noxious Weeds to cover an allocation from the road fund; $150,000 for assigned counsel to cover Uniform Guardianship Act cases and expert costs; and several public-health grant timing and revenue additions (including approximately $39,000, $29,000 and smaller one-time grants for foundational public-health services and shellfish-harvesting safety).
Emergency Management received a $14,000 grant from the Washington State Military Department for hazardous-materials training. Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities received just over $500,000 for professional services to provide jail-based inmate healthcare through a health-care authority agreement. Fund-level adjustments included using historic SCOG funds for a First Steps Burlington project, a $40,000 interlocal amendment to pay for a forfeited vehicle for the drug task force, and modest solid-waste rental increases for porta-potties at two sites. The jail budget was amended by $118,000 to cover a van received in 2025 but budgeted in 2022, plus $200,000 in ER&R for vehicle upfitting and patrol vehicle needs.
Commissioner Wiesen said the prior department work session was useful and suggested future budget documents note the date of departmental work sessions to improve the audit trail. Logue explained the large ARPA items were not pre-budgeted placeholders and that timing changes in state grant payments drove several of the public-health amendments. After no public comment on the amendment packet, commissioners closed the hearing and approved the supplemental budget as presented. The final vote carried 2 to 0.
