The Town of Twisp has received major grant awards from the State Public Works Board for infrastructure projects.
The town received $728,000 to fund an emergency egress project for Painter’s Addition, the neighborhood west of downtown where the Orchard Hills planned development is proposed. The town also was granted $2,257,706 for a water system project on Glover Street.
In the Public Works Board’s rating system for construction awards, those Twisp projects scored second and sixth out of 61 statewide awards totaling more than $221 million for the 2024 fiscal year. The two projects were both rated “severely distressed,” indicating high-priority needs in the board’s scoring system it used to decide which requests to fund.
Public Works Director Andrew Denham said the town also has a received a planning grant of $150,000 from the state. Several Transportation Improvement Board requests for various street-related projects are in the pipeline, Denham told the Town Council last week.
Awards from the board’s traditional construction program support vital public infrastructure across six different systems: streets and roads, bridges, domestic water, stormwater, sanitary sewers, and solid waste, recycling and organics, according to a press release. Eligible applicants are cities, counties and special purpose districts.
Other towns in Okanogan County that received grants included Conconully, $4.3 million for the Broadway Street Bridge replacement; Coulee Dam, $336,000 for a sewer main project; and Okanogan, $1,810,260 for Third Avenue utility improvements.
The Conconully project addresses threats of flooding, erosion, debris flow, and stream bed sedimentation exist due to a burn scar caused by the Muckamuck Fire in 2021, according to a press release. The new bridge structure will lessen the risk of flooding and enhance bridge performance during heavy precipitation and snow melt runoff events.
