Federal short of need by 90 %

By John Henderer, The Chronicle, 10/16/98

Federal transportation funding to continue a major flood-control study of the Chehalis River fell 90 percent short of Lewis County's $2.5 million goal, but a consultant said the money may be available elsewhere.

The $ 1.1 million project will receive just $250,000 from the Federal Highway Administration, 10 percent of the $2.5 million Lewis County commissioners sought, said Rob Nichols, press secretary for U.S. Sen. Slide Gorton, R-Wash.

"Part of the reason was that Slade was the only one carrying the water there on behalf of the Centralia-Chehalis area," Nichols said of Gorton's lobbying efforts.

The project will also receive $200,000 funding through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"We're going to have to bridge the gap here somehow," said Judith Shulman, president of Pharos Corp., a consultant for the county

No budget has been set for the project, said Harry Hosey, manager of Edmonds-based Pacific International Engineering, but the setback will slow, not end aspects of the work.

"Tbere's a number of potential funding sources available and the county is pursuing those with vigor," Hosey said.

The request faced an uphill battle on two fronts: It didn't fit federal guidelines for highway projects because the proposed project is outside the Interstate 5 right of way, and an influential congressman

thought it smelled of pork.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, opposed the funding request because he opposes earmarking transportation funds for specific projects, said Hosey, who lobbied for the funding.

"It's not pork," Hosey said earlier. "It's truly a very cost-saving project (but) that is chairman Wolf's concern.

Hosey said an exception to the federal rules would have made sense, noting he was involved in a similar unconventional project that was funded. A $20 million project to build a 200,000 ton "rock groin" in the ocean to preserve Highway 106 near Willapa Bay won funding from the state Department of Transportation.

"(It's) the first time, I think, DOT has ever done a project in the Pacific Ocean," Hosey said. "It's so similar to what we're

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