Town of Rosalia receives $24,000 for wastewater facility planning

The Town of Rosalia last week received a $24,000 planning grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce. The money will go toward funding a wastewater facility plan amendment.

“It’s planning for specifically in this case for their wastewater collection needs,” said Lane Merritt, project manager and engineer with J-U-B Engineers, which helped Rosalia with the grant process. “The plan will help them to identify needs and how to address them.”

Jenna McDonald, town clerk, said the grant will cover the entire planning project.

“It covers the whole thing, all of the expenses to get this done,” she said. “This will hopefully be the hurdle to do the actual funding for the construction replacement.”

Merritt said the town’s plan will likely focus on a plan for improving wastewater collection.

“It helps them address needs they’ve identified and are concerned about and make a plan for that,” he said. “It coordinates the efforts that have been ongoing to improve overall wastewater collection.”

Merritt said the planning phase will get underway within the next month or so and be a year-long process. J-U-B will continue to work with them on the planning.

“We’re the engineers that will be working with them on the project and helping them with the plan,” he said.

Overall, the Department of Commerce awarded more than $10 million in Community Development Block Grants to 22 cities and counties throughout the state. They received 28 grant applications which requested $14 million.

Nearby, Kahlotus received $741,300 for water system improvements and $20,000 for a community facility feasibility study.