Incompetence causes road’s funding shortfall
Ozias punts decision, remains loyal to special interests
The Clallam County Commissioners’ Work Session today revealed four things:
An incompetent and unfounded decision made by the Commissioners in February, 2023 to stop completion of the Towne Road Project has led to a $1M inflationary shortfall as budgeted in the original plan. The Commissioners halted the project’s completion to serve special interests. If the Commissioners had followed the plan set forth in February, Towne Road would have been completed two months ago and would have been paid for entirely with grant money (not County funds).
The levee that Towne Road was designed, planned, and funded to be built upon cost $20M in grant money. This significantly cost more because the levee’s width was doubled in order to accommodate the 38-foot wide surface for a road (the width of a dike without a roadbed is half that). That money was paid for by grantors that could request a refund from Clallam County since the project was not completed to design specifications.
Today, Commissioner Ozias is attempting to claw back $1.1M in funds currently allocated to the completion of Towne Road, for other use. Ozias desires that $1.5M of the remaining grant money, which expires at the end of 2024, be allocated to install the automated, electronic gates that have been promised (in a series of emails) to an individual special interest.
Commissioner Ozias attempted to use artificially created crises (soil contamination, financial insecurity, and an upswell of support for the road’s closure) to delay Towne Road’s completion by an additional three years. This fulfills the wishes of his campaign’s top contributor who is on record as requesting a three-year delay in making a decision on how to complete the project.
Today’s Work Session clearly showed that Commissioner Mark Ozias’ priorities remain loyal to his special interests, and not to the greater community.