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BY GABRIELLE FELICIANO
OF THE MINER
NEWPORT — The Newport City Council heard at their Monday, April 20 meeting updates from heads at the Public Works department and South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue.
Soon to begin again over the summer is Newport’s annual road maintenance, funded by grants from the state Transportation Improvement Board. The maintenance, which involves sweeps, chip seals on several new blocks of road and fog seals on all roads chipsealed last year, not only repairs the roads but also extends their lifespans by five to seven years.
Council member Mark Zorica asked city administrator Abby Gribi and Josh Howard, Wastewater Treatment Plant superintendent, about Seventh Street, which has sustained severe damage over time due to heavy bus traffic.
“It’s the weight on it,” Gribi said. “It’s not designed for that constant, every day, heavy traffic.”
Seventh Street can be reassessed, but a project to fix it must be contracted out, Gribi said. It needs to be converted to a concrete-based road that is designed for traffic from school buses and other heavy vehicles.
TIB has some suggestions for treatments that may serve as temporary fixes, Gribi said. A TIB engineer and the city oil supplier will reassess Seventh Street and discuss such treatments with Gribi.
To keep Seventh Street operational for now, Public Works will apply a treatment that repairs some of the deeper holes, Howard said. That work will start this week.
“You may have some issues down the road with that piece,” Zorica said, pointing out that more school buses will use Seventh Street come this fall.
Council member Nathan Longly asked if this year’s maintenance would include sections of wider roads left unmaintained in the last two years. Gribi clarified that TIB only funded maintenance on travel lanes, not necessarily adjacent parking areas.
“We can take a look, but that’s what they’ll find,” Gribi said. “Sometimes, depending on the road, they might go a little wider.”
Public Works is preparing for the upcoming season by cleaning parks and reopening public bathrooms, Howard said. Previously, the department had continuous issues with homeless residents staying or breaking into the bathrooms overnight. Some bathrooms were vandalized, with motion sensors stabbed, toilets unflushed with their seats removed and drug paraphernalia left behind.
The code to the bathrooms has been changed, said Tiffany Hansen, city deputy clerk-treasurer. Zorica recommended Public Works get the Newport Police Department further involved.
“They’ve even gotten into the RV bathrooms, camping in there,” Howard said. “So, it’s tough.”
Regarding fire, there were no major cases in the city last quarter, SPOFR Chief Shane Stocking said. The city even saw improvement in fire coverage ratings via the Washington Surveying and Rating Bureau.
However, this year’s fire season is starting one month earlier, Stocking said. SPOFR has already seen wildfires in the southern part of the county, and Stocking anticipates more as soon as next week.
“The rain does not mean that we’re gonna delay wildfires. The rain means we’re just gonna grow grass, and growing grass is not a good thing,” Stocking said. “That only fuels flames.”
In other business, the council unanimously agreed to delay their vote on an agreement with the federal Department of Health, which is providing the city with $187,052 for a hydrogeological study. The council will vote on the agreement at their Monday, May 2 meeting.
