State budget directs millions to local projects: Hatchery, schools big recipients

Published 11:30 am Tuesday, May 13, 2025

OLYMPIA — There’s a reason the capital budget is one of the most universally supported pieces of legislation in the Washington State Legislature each year: it gives senators and representatives, regardless of party, the opportunity to shower projects in their home districts with cash.

And Pacific County was no exception this year, as 15 local infrastructure projects combined to receive more than $26 million in state funding through the 2025-27 capital budget that legislators approved unanimously late last month. The budget still must be signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson.

Hatchery, schools

The Naselle Hatchery is the biggest beneficiary in the county as part of its yearslong renovation project, as it’s slated to receive $9.32 million to help fund the second and third phases of the renovation. The Nemah Hatchery also received $381,000 to replace a weir, a barrier placed across the river to guide fish into a passage leading to the hatchery.

The state has now committed more than $63 million to support the work at the Naselle Hatchery, which involves adding new settling ponds, a distribution box, pipeline, pump house, weir and modern equipment, as well as replacing aging ponds with new raceways that can be used during the summer to spread the fish out and avoid dangerous pathogens.

Several local schools are set to receive millions as part of efforts to modernize their facilities, including $6 million earmarked for the South Bend School District. The funds will be awarded through the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Small School District Modernization Grant program, which assists districts that have a maximum enrollment of 1,000 students in replacing or upgrading “significant building system deficiencies.”

The $6 million South Bend is slated to receive will go toward making improvements and additions to the high school’s vocational building, according to an OSPI spokesperson. The Naselle-Grays River Valley School District is set to receive $800,000, which will support the conversion of storage space at the K-12 school into a weight room.

The North River School District is in line to receive about $5.55 million that will support several projects, including replacing doors, windows, roof, siding, the HVAC system and controls at the district’s elementary school in Cosmopolis — which pulls in students from the northeast corner of the county. Doors, windows and HVAC and controls will also be replaced at the high school, while windows and doors will be replaced at the gymnasium.

Other projects

Elsewhere in the county, $950,000 was included in the capital budget for the planned American Legion Veteran Housing and Resource Center in Raymond, which will be awarded through the Washington Department of Commerce’s Housing Trust Fund.

That project, which would transform the legion building in the city to provide housing for veterans and other community resources, has secured an additional $14 million from state and federal programs in recent years, but local leaders explained to Ferguson during his March visit to the county that construction costs were continuing to rise and that further support was needed.

Other projects in line for funding from Commerce-administered programs include $261,000 for “critical” system upgrades at the Tokeland Hotel, as well as $515,000 for dredging at the Port of Chinook.

The state Recreation and Conservation Office is set to dole out just over $950,000 to a trio of projects in the eastern part of the county through its Family Forest Fish Passage program. The program provides grants to small, family-forest landowners for them to continue replacing or removing fish-barrier culverts and other structures that keep fish like salmon and trout from reaching their upstream habitat.

In Raymond, the Dr. O.R. Nevitt Memorial Pool is slated to receive $392,000 from RCO’s Washington Wildlife Recreation Program. The funds will go toward the first phase of the pool’s renovation, which first opened in 1955. In 2024, the city took over day-to-day operations and maintenance of the pool from People Organized to Operate Leisure, or POOL, a nonprofit that got the pool back up and running in 2002 after it had sat dormant for more than 20 years.

Another $489,000 from that same program would go toward improvements of Bridge 43 along the Willapa Hills Trail, part of the state park system. The 56-mile trail, which begins in Chehalis and ends in South Bend, has received millions of dollars in state funds in recent years for repairs and improvements.