City agrees to pact with county for road services
March 5, 2008
By Ed Farrell
Acknowledging King County has greater assets and expertise than the City of Snoqualmie, the City Council last week approved an interlocal agreement whereby the county’s Road Services Division will provide, upon request of the city, a variety of maintenance needs.
Among the areas included in the agreement are traffic and road maintenance, construction management and engineering, environmental services and other road-related services.
Kirk Holmes, the city’s director of public works, said the agreement is a winner for both the city and the county.
“We’ve got a lot of work out here, and sometimes issues arise that are outside our area of expertise,” Holmes said.
Holmes said, while the city will continue to budget large expenditure projects in its Capital Improvement Plan, the agreement with King County would primarily address “instances that are unplanned for.”
Holmes also said, while he has 19 qualified employees in his department, what he doesn’t have is much of the specialized equipment or engineering experts the agreement now makes available to the city.
The agreement specifically cites the cost savings and benefits “in the public’s interest,” by having the county complete these services, described in the agreement as “any service that the city requests to the extent that the county’s Road Services Division is able to provide such service,” at the city’s expense.
“It could be anything from striping roads to working on traffic signals to paving a small section of roadway,” Holmes said. “Or it could be a lot more extensive. There may also be projects out there that if we use (the county’s) design and engineering services, it will benefit us.”
Any work will have to be authorized first by city officials and forwarded to the county for action, Holmes said.
“When we have a need for county services, we’ll submit a discretionary work order with the county,” Holmes said. “They’ll give us an estimate for the cost which we will have to approve prior to authorizing the work.”
