Just before the ultimate, early-morning gavel FINALLY fell on the 2012 Legislature a few weeks back, the state's new supplemental 2011-2013 capital budget -- featuring a very significant item that, according to its main booster and prime proponent, "will go quite a long way toward helping rebuild a significant piece of Brier's infrastructure” -- captured the long-awaited legislative "Green Light" and flew off to a coveted spot on the governor's desk, needing only her tasty autograph to become the "Law of the State."
State Rep. Derek Stanford this past session rounded up support for an $800,000 appropriation in the capital budget to assist in paying for a new Scriber Creek Pedestrian Bridge. This updated construction budget won final legislative approval near, as your true and loyal HDC Advance Blogster might have noted a couple of lines back, the very end of the recent special session.
Stanford explained that the horrible flood in December 2007 battered the you-know-what out of the bridge and areas around the bridge -- "eroding the creek bank to such an extent that two of the four pilings supporting the bridge were exposed."
"I'd like to express my appreciation to Rep. Stanford and his staff for their efforts assisting the City of Brier to acquire the funding needed for this project," said Brier Mayor Bob Colinas. "The city will now be able to make the repairs ensuring the bridge, sewer line and the fragile ecosystem of Scriber Creek will be maintained."
The Scriber Creek Pedestrian Bridge not only provides a major trail link in Brier, it also carries a sewer pipe over Scriber Creek, which is a salmon-bearing waterway.
Stanford said the prime directives in the capital budget, which this year is also called the "Jobs Now! Act," emphasize repairs for schools and other public buildings, as well as new-construction projects that will put many thousands of Washington men and women to work in communities all across the state. This budget will help leverage federal, local and private funding, and it also helps preserve and maintain state facilities.
He also noted that the capital budget “is primarily funded by the sale of bonds, and doesn’t do anything to add to the serious shortfall currently confronting our state’s biennial operating budget.”
To read this post in Spanish, click here.
