Written by Jane Roush | 31 May 2010

Coming home by ferry from Seattle the other day, I drove past the shipyard and merged into Hwy 3.  Coming up to the turn off at Gorst was this huge sign, “This project is paid through the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act” or some such wording.  I remembered saying in a past column that I would write about federal stimulus dollars when I could get better information.

On the governments website, I found out that there are three award statuses:  contracts, grants and loans.

There is only one contract in Mason County totaling $303,733 between Feb-December 31, 2009. It is a loan to the City of Shelton for $303,733 for Research and Design apparently for the water/sewer system update. The information on the site also shows a contract for $279,507 for road maintenance and repair on the Hood Canal Ranger District in the Olympic National Forest.  Wait a minute the site shows two contracts but only the total of the contract to the City of Shelton.  Oh well!!!

The website shows one loan in Mason County totaling $20,379.  However there is a loan to the City of Shelton for $28,857,000. Gee that doesn’t agree either. Incidentally this is the project I discussed in past columns.   You remember the loan is for 40 years to upgrade the sewer system, but the city of Shelton anticipates the system will last only 20 years.

So let’s look at grants.  This should be the easy one. The total grants to all Mason County governmental entities are 61 for a total of $18,924,312.  I hate to tell you this—I am not going to list 61 grants but I will give you the big ones.
I have tried to break down the grants into various groupings:

Water:

• PUD #1 received $181,700 for drinking water and drinking water activities.
• Oak Park Water District received $400,000 for drinking water and drinking water activities.
• The Skokomish Farms, Inc. received $181,900 for  an emergency watershed project.

Schools:

• Grapeview School District received $106,981 for grade school.
• North mason School District received $1,667,841 for grade, high etc
• Pioneer School District received $655,190 for schools.
• Mary K Knight received $187,723 for schools.
• Southside School District received $212,289 for schools.
• Hood Canal School District received $257,262 for schools.

Belfair Water/Sewer Project:

• Mason County received $5,891,886 for the Belfair Water Project.

Housing:

• Received $220,120 from the Dept of Commerce

Squaxin Indian Tribe:

• Received $88,873 for new equipment from the Dept of Agriculture
• Received $1,196,160 from the Asst Sect for Public and Indian Housing
• Received $326,438 from the Asst Sect for Public and Indian Housing
• Received $72,300 from the Dept of Energy
• Received $103,100 from Indian Health Service

Law and Order:

• City of Shelton received from the Dept of Justice $660,720
• Mason County received from the Dept of Justice $689,055
• Squaxin Indian Tribe received from the Dept of Justice $261,357

Skokomish Indian Tribe:

• Received $274,400 from the Asst Sect for Public and Indian Housing
• Received $43,881 from the Admin of Children/Families
• Received $20,886 from the Admin of Children/Families
• Received $64,200 from Golden Field Office
• Received $98,494 from Indian Health Service

South Puget Intertribal Planning Council:

• Received $259,686 from the Admin of Children/Families
• Received $36,910 from the Admin of Children/Families
• Received $259,686 from the Admin of Children/Families
• Received $36,910 from the Admin of Children/Families
• These are two different contracts.

Transportation:

• Mason County received $291,300 to pave McEwan Prairie Rd with overlay.
• Mason County received $150,000 for solar-lighted intersections.  Both of these projects are “operationally complete.”

I suspect I will have to monitor the distribution of funds for some time.  There will be corrections and additions to my files.

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