Washington State Reps. Brandon Vick, left, and Larry Hoff, right, speak to The Reflector as part of a cross-county tour to visit with local media June 14, 2019.
There’s some good news when it comes to replacement of the Interstate 5 bridge, though local lawmakers caution there needs to be more public participation up-front this time around so there won’t be a repeat of the Columbia River Crossing.
Washington’s 18th Legislative District headed out to local media outlets last week to talk about their work, the past session and what’s on the legislative horizon, stopping by The Reflector June 14.
Reps. Brandon Vick, R-Felida and Larry Hoff, R-Vancouver came by — Though initially planned to join them, Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center did not join her counterparts in the House.
The 2019 legislative session concluded on-time April 28. Since then both legislators have still been at work, though they aren’t spending nearly as much time in Olympia as opposed to back home in Clark County.
“I think the first order of business was reminding your family who you were,” Vick remarked. With the conclusion of the session the lawmakers have had the opportunity to address constituent concerns for which in-session wasn’t the right time, he explained.
The lawmakers spoke extensively about the capital and transportation budgets which saw a number of winners and losers locally.
In La Center, $1.5 million has been secured for engineering and design work to replace a culvert and widen East 4th Street from East Cedar Avenue to Northeast Highland Avenue. Ridgefield also got some state money for local projects, with $250,000 in the state transportation budget for planning and pre-design of a connection to I-5 to the southern part of the city, and $2 million in the capital budget for design and pre-construction work for a light industrial facility project dubbed Wisdom Ridge.
Though Ridgefield and La Center received funds for projects this year, Battle Ground’s one request for a $1.3 million inflation adjustment on the next phase of the State Route 502/503 intersection improvement was not received.
Hoff said that although Battle Ground didn’t get the additional funding this year, “that’s going to happen” eventually. Vick said that for the state transportation budget a court decision forced more funding for fish culverts, hurting other road projects.
Vick pointed out that Battle Ground could benefit from one funding item, that of $500,000 to help bring a YMCA to North County. He explained that although Battle Ground’s one “ask” did not happen, in some cases cities had a dozen or more and only received a fraction of what they requested.
One transportation project received significant funding with $35 million going to I-5 bridge replacement. Vick felt getting the money, specifically $17.5 million to open a bridge replacement project office in Vancouver, was an important mark on the timeline to getting a new bridge.
“It’s more than a show, though,” Hoff said regarding the project office opening. He said he wanted to make sure the money for the office was accounted for.
“The big question mark that lingers is if Oregon is putting up their match,” Vick said. He said a meeting with Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek including himself and fellow Southwest Washington lawmaker Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver went well, noting the speaker was receptive to their issues but stopped short of promises as that legislature is still in session.
Vick said the Oregon legislature would finally be appointing members to a bi-state legislative committee created by 2017 legislation, of which Vick is a Washington member. One of the biggest hangups has been Oregon’s Senate, “not that they’ve said no, they’ve not said anything,” Vick said.
In order to avoid having a repeat of the Columbia River Crossing, a project that failed in 2013, Vick said it would be important to have public participation “on the front end” of any work. Though ultimately it was Washington lawmakers who killed the project he said that was only because of public opinion.
“If the citizens would have been on board with this bridge, you wouldn’t have had anyone object to it down here,” Vick said. He felt there was consensus among lawmakers, “but if I have my opinion and the 18th District decides I’m wrong, it’s on me to change my opinion,” he explained.
