No engineer puts major projects in jeopardy

Published 12:44 pm Monday, June 24, 2024

Pacific County is on thin ice with several Federal Highway Administration grants because the county does not have an on-staff engineer. The county has been using contracted services since last fall.

If the county doesn’t hire an engineer by the end of the year, two major projects and several others could be in jeopardy. A much-anticipated Ilwaco to Seaview trail project and Niawiakum Bridge replacement could lose their allotted funding.

The trail, with a total estimated cost of $4.75 million, would provide a 1.4-mile bike and pedestrian connecting trail between Ilwaco and the rest of the peninsula along U.S. 101.

According to Ilwaco City Councilor Matt Lessnau and Pacific County Chief Administrative Officer Paul Plakinger, the issue is the county’s lack of an engineer and Ilwaco’s failure to meet the requirements to be a certified agency.

Patiently waiting

The City of Ilwaco is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The new trail could significantly improve the safety of travelers, while providing an additional loop for Discovery Trail users. Lessnau has been ardent in trying to keep the project alive.

“We were notified of the award a while back that we got it, and then we were like, ‘Oh cool,’” Lessnau said. “Then we were patiently waiting, and then everything kind of dropped off and we were like, ‘OK, where is this?”

Pull Quote

‘We still have a little bit of time left.’

Paul Plakinger, Pacific County

chief administrative officer

Lessnau and others reached out to county commissioners and received a cold shoulder. The city decided to see if it could complete the project on its own since it had the capacity to undertake the work — therefore becoming the lead agency.

“Then there was an article in the Observer about the county, and they had to forgo some grants for the fair,” Lessnau said. “It quoted [saying] ‘we don’t have the capacity, and we have to give this up.’ I was like, crap; we are in a similar spot.”

The city contacted the Southwest Washington Regional Trail Planning Organization and the primary stakeholder, the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments, to try to take over the project as the lead agency. It turned out that with support from the coalition and other involved parties, the project could be swapped to a new lead agency.

As you would expect, the issue of the City of Ilwaco not being a certified agency slammed the brakes on rekindling the project.

“Every county in Washington is, but not all municipalities are,” Lessnau said, adding that he believes the last time Ilwaco was authorized as a certified agency was in the mid-1990s.

Rob Klug, a local programs engineer for the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Southwest region, could take on the role to help the project start moving. However, he is currently overseeing over 200 projects and is unable to take on any additional projects — the trail is not a high priority.

Essentially, the City of Ilwaco has to piggyback on Pacific County, and there is no viable alternative.

County troubles

The Pacific County Department of Public Works has had difficulty retaining an engineer. In the past two years, it has gone through three engineers. The most recent, Grace Amundsen-Barnkow, left the county on Sept. 15, 2023, for a higher-paying position at WSDOT.

Pay has been a key issue for years in the county because it is one of the poorest in the state. Making matters more difficult is that the county is competing with neighboring Grays Harbor and Lewis counties, which can offer higher wages due to significantly higher tax revenue.

The monthly pay scale for the county engineer in Grays Harbor County starts at $10,688 and tops out at $11,544. In Lewis County, the pay scale starts at $8,250 and tops out at $11,094. Pacific County starts on the pay scale at $9,114 and tops at $10,314 monthly.

Although the pay looks low by engineer standards, Plakinger notes that it has still outpaced inflation. The top-end pay for the county engineer was approximately $84,000 annually in 2011, and in 2024 it is right at $123,000.

“It has outpaced inflation,” Plakinger said. “Using the inflation calculator, it comes out to just over $117,000.”

Shortening timeframe

The Pacific County Commission approved spending $33,600 on a compensation study to evaluate salaries for positions like the county engineer. The contract was awarded to JB Reward Systems of Bainbridge Island and is expected to be completed by October.

In the meantime, the county hopes to attract interest in the county engineer position and recently learned someone is interested. The individual has not yet submitted a formal application.

According to the Pacific County project list available through WSDOT, the county currently has five projects on hold due to a lack of an engineer, and even more are not listed. The projects equate to millions of dollars of infrastructure upgrades.

The county has until September 2025 to get everything sorted out before the funding lapses, and it would be a major hurdle to try to get it again.

“We still have a little bit of time left,” Plakinger said.