Kittitas County approves contracts, infrastructure awards and backs CWU geothermal exploration

Kittitas County commissioners approved a slate of contract awards, project change orders and administrative items and voted unanimously to send a letter of support for a Central Washington University (CWU) application to the U.S. Department of Energy for geothermal exploration.

In separate agenda actions, the board moved to authorize: selection of AP Triton LLC to perform a countywide emergency medical services and standards-of-coverage assessment after an RFQ that produced four submittals (presented by Chad Beulah, CDF director); an award to Gibson and Sons Road Building Inc. as the lowest responsive bidder for construction of a new entrance and tank replacement at the Cleon Transfer Station (presented by Patty Stacy, facilities and waste operations director); and approval of change order 11 to add skylight bracing with an incremental cost of $155,617 and a 121-day lead time (Stacy said the project remains within budget). The board was also asked to ratify a lease amendment correcting a scrivener’s error to preserve a 30-year airport lease term ending in 2052 for Lot H24 (RBR Investment Aviation LLC) and to ratify the chair’s signature on a Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant authorization form for a lower-credit restoration project.

Public health director Chelsea Lippert presented Amendment 1 to the county agreement with Robin Reed Consulting to correct an effective date and asked the board to approve a one-time RFP for opioid-abatement strategies tied to a pooled ILA with the City of Ellensburg (approximately $380,000). Andrew Yoder requested reinstatement of employer-side unemployment compensation contributions for 2026 at the rate described in the record as 0.11% of gross wages. The county auditor requested and the board set a public hearing on April 21 to consider seven precinct boundary adjustments intended to keep precincts below a statutory 1,500-registered-voter limit.

Central Washington University’s capital-planning director, identified in the record with variant spellings (transcript lines include "DeWalter" and "Delano"), described a proposed DOE Resource Exploration, Characterization and Confirmation application that would fund subsurface exploration (potentially to depths around 15,000 feet) and urged county support for the research and workforce-development benefits. The CWU representative said the request seeks the program maximum of $8,000,000 for exploration and that the university would provide a 20% match in the form of a parcel. The board moved, seconded and voted "Aye" to approve a letter of support for the application; staff noted the submission deadline is at the end of the month.

Several items were described as reviewed by the prosecutor’s office. Commissioners recorded routine unanimous voice votes on these consent and consent-adjacent items and closed the meeting after a short executive session.