City accepts over $1 million to fund a lot of work

Coulee Dam tripled its budget for street projects Monday, accepting contracts with the state Transportation Improvement Board for funds to chip seal most streets in town this summer and upgrading sidewalk ramps for compliance with federal rules on access for wheelchair users next year.

The city council amended the 2024 Street Fund budget from $531,526 to $1,595,526.

The chip seal work, in which crushed gravel is layered smoothly on a prepared street, then oiled and rolled, will happen this summer, City Clerk Stefani Bowden said. The work on sidewalk ramps will take place in 2025.

Under a separate state program, about 130 of Coulee Dam’s electricity customers will get a $200 credit through the state Department of Commerce soon under a program that allots each power utility the credit for each of its customers based on the low- to moderate-income status of those with incomes up to 150 percent of the area’s median income.

The money will be awarded through the Washington Families Clean Energy Credits Grant Program, funded through the Climate Commitment Act.

Coulee Dam will be credited with $26,807.61. Bowden said Commerce will tell the city which customers are eligible for the credit, which the city must distribute by Sept. 15.

Last year, the city sent about $3,000 of its unused funds from a similar Commerce program to another utility, Bowden noted.