This year, the city of Puyallup has two priorities for requesting funds from federal appropriations — The Shaw Road Extension project and the 800 MHz and Interoperability project.
Both have been continually worked on for the past year.
Last week, City Manager Gary McLean and Councilmembers Mike Deal and Kathy Turner met with Senator Patty Murray, Senator Maria Cantwell, Congressman Adam Smith and Congressman Dave Reichert in Washington, D.C. to discuss funding in Puyallup.
“Our meetings with them we’re very positive,” McLean said.
The Shaw Road Extension project has received federal appropriations before and the 800 MHz and Interoperability project would allow better communication between emergency responders.
It is something that came out of the 9/11 Commission’s report on improving emergency response.
McLean said he feels confident the projects will get serious considerations because they both have a great amount of investment from multiple partners and are on target to be completed.
“It is more attractive to federal officials to fund projects that they can complete,” he said.
Shaw Road Extension project
This $23.5 million project will create a north-south connection to East Main. This year, the city is requesting $2 million in federal appropriations for the project. That would make federal funding just less than a third of the total. Funding has also come from the city, state, railroad, the Port of Tacoma and other sources.
“It will be a benefit to our entire economy,” McLean said.
It’s why it is a priority project and so many other agencies have invested in it, he said.
The project has been identified as a regional project that would ease traffic congestion in the area. The project has two phases with the first expected to be completed sometime in 2008 and construction for phase two beginning mid-to-late 2008.
This week, Deputy Mayor George Dill will travel to Washington, D.C. as the city’s representative on a delegation lobbying for project support in front of the Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board.
The project has been identified as one of six priority projects in the South Sound.
800 MHz and Interoperability funding
Puyallup and Tacoma have taken the lead in Pierce County to develop a communications network that would be more seamless and reliable than some current agencies’ equipment.
Currently, the city of Puyallup has a 800 MHz tower up and running on South Hill and the same will happen in Edgewood shortly.
Interoperability is a term meaning to create a process where communication is more seamless. After Sept. 11, the 9/11 Commission found better first-responder communication could save lives in the event of a crisis.
The systems are meant to be built out regionally, so multiple agencies can communicate to each other effectively.
“There are more funds available when jurisdictions work together,” McLean said.
The city is requesting up to $2.9 million to fund more of the project. The funding could help expand coverage in Bonney Lake and other parts of Eastern Pierce County. The system has the capabilities to communicate as far north as Everett.
The project has shown a great amount of bipartisan support.
“These projects don’t know party boundaries,” McLean said. “These are the types of things government should be funding.”
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