DAYTON—At their regular meeting last week, the Board of County Commissioners and Charles Eaton, the county engineer, discussed moving ahead with their intention to create a county-wide flood control zone district, a process that was started by City of Dayton Mayor Craig George and former County Commissioner Merle Jackson, early in 2017.

At that time, Commissioner Jackson expressed concerns about recent high water events and the accumulating amount of gravel just north of the Highway 12 Bridge. He also pointed out that the county has been declared a federal disaster area six times, because of flooding, since 1964.

In April of 2017, Kirk Holmes, an engineer with the consulting firm PERFEET, was invited to speak with representatives from the city, the county, WSDOT, Anderson Perry & Associates, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others, about the reasons why a flood control zone district should be formed, and how to go about forming one.

He recommended creating a long-term plan with robust public outreach.

Holmes said some of the benefits of the flood control zone district include establishing a dedicated funding source to repair damage, protecting other city and county budgets, and providing flood protection for aging infrastructure using local funds, all while maintaining local control and flexibility.

Also, the responsibility of the county and city to maintain the levee would be simplified if turned over to a flood control zone district, Holmes said.

The City of Dayton and Town of Starbuck are protected from flooding from levees. A flood control zone district would protect the cities’ coffers from the disastrous effects of flood.

At last week’s meeting Charles Eaton pointed out the fact that having a flood control zone district in place will also allow the Town of Starbuck to grow and develop.

Eaton told the BOCC there will be many opportunities for public input before a final decision is made. If adopted by the BOCC in June, a resolution to create a Flood Control Zone District would go before voters in the November 2019 general election.

Once it is established, the BOCC will act as the Board of Supervisors for the flood control zone district, and the county engineer as its administrator, according to state law.

South Touchet Road

Eaton said the South Touchet Road Project is going out for bids at the end of the month.

The Robinette intersection has been redesigned with a three-way merge pattern. It shows the South Touchet Road as the primary arterial and Robinette coming down the hill and merging into it.

Harvest vehicles will merge from Robinette onto the South Touchet Road further down, from the Robinette/South Touchet Road intersection, he said.

“The bad news is it is not any cheaper,” Eaton told the commissioners.

Eaton said it is likely another project would need to be deferred since the cost for the South Touchet Road redesign is an amount over the available funding.