City prepares state wish list

The 2025 Legislature doesn't gather until January, but the City of Shelton is already working on a wish list for state money to present to local legislators.

At a study session July 23, the Shelton City Council and the city's lobbyist, Troy Nichols, talked about the city's funding needs. Expanded water storage, intersection improvements on Wallace Kneeland Boulevard, a homeless mitigation site, affordable housing and behavioral health resources were among the suggestions.

City Manager Mark Ziegler said the council will continue to develop the wish list and hopes to meet with local legislators in early fall.

"I'm glad we're having this discussion in July," said Nichols, the city's lobbyist since 2017. "As early as we can get our priorities nailed down and sent to our delegation, the better. We've heard that from them directly ... You can't come to the table in January, it's too late."

The city's wish list will go to state Rep. Travis Couture and Dan Griffey, both Allyn Republicans, and state Sen. Drew MacEwen R-Shelton, who is running for U.S. Congress representing the 6th District.

"Without them working together on our behalf, I don't know if we'd be nearly as successful as we've been over the years," Nichols said.

Nichols stressed the state wants municipalities to "demonstrate we have put skin in the game" while seeking money for proposed projects.

"Typically, the state, when we're talking about transportation or infrastructure projects, they like to be the last dollar in, not the first," he said. "And so where we can demonstrate community investment, some resources the city has put in, where there have been studies we funded or participated in ... They want to help finish projects, not get them started."

Last November, the City Council presented a wish list that included $3 million for a multimodal path through Shelton on the former Simpson Timber Railroad right of way and $2 million for a homeless mitigation site. The council also asked for $4 million for intersection improvements on Wallace Kneeland Boulevard at 13th Street and Shelton Springs Road, $3.1 million for a new water reservoir next to the current reservoir on Angleside to provide water to 1,000 proposed homes and a new school site, $5 million for a second reservoir in Upper Mountainview to provide water to new industrial users, the Port of Shelton and 3,000 proposed homes in the north end of Shelton, and $17.2 million for satellite wastewater treatment plant upgrades.

The city received $200,000 for the design of the multimodal path project and $1 million for intersection improvements on Wallace-Kneeland Boulevard intersections.

"That was a pretty big gift for Mason County," Nichols said.

At the 2023 legislative session, the city received $250,000 for security and access control improvements for city facilities and critical infrastructure, and $1.85 million for capacity upgrades for the Angleside reservoir.

When it comes to state funding, Shelton and Mason County "do punch outside of our weight class and quite often are fairly successful with what we're able to bring back to the 35th," Nichols said.

But state revenues are dipping, making the funding of capital projects tougher, the lobbyist said.

"They are already signally the operating budget is going to be fairly tight," he said.

Improvements for Wallace Kneeland Boulevard "has been on our 'ask list' for four or five years, maybe more," Ziegler said, "They're not necessarily failing for our standards at this point, but they're failing at certain points of the day, or they're just not performing well at the intersections of Wallace Kneeland and the Pacific Highway [U.S. 101], Wallace Kneeland at Shelton Springs, Wallace Kneeland at Johns Prairie. Again, we're lucky enough to have a million dollars from this last session, $750,000 from 2022."

"Water storage is huge," said Mayor Eric Onisko. "That can cost us, down the road, a halt in building if we don't get storage for fire flow and everything else."

If MacEwan is elected to Congress, "I would think either Dan Griffey or Travis Couture would probably be the frontrunners for an appointment like that," Nichols said.