Briefly from Blaine City Council

News from the virtual Blaine City Council meeting on April 12.

State funding coming down the pike for Blaine

With the help of state funding, the city of Blaine is expected to receive money for large projects that could clean up the Blaine Marine Park shoreline and revitalize downtown.

The state’s House of Representatives and Senate released their capital budgets on March 25. Lawmakers are working to combine the two capital budgets into one before the 2021 session adjourns April 25.

The House approved funding for two Blaine projects – the Marine Park Beach Naturalization and the Downtown Revitalization project – but the Senate only approved funding for the marine park project.

The city of Blaine applied and was awarded its full request amount from an Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account grant that will give $500,000 to the city to repair the park’s shoreline from the apple tree point to the end of Marine Drive.

“This is a tremendous success,” Jones said in an email to Blaine City Council. “It is the culmination of years of work by the Community Development Services Department with the help from the Park and Cemetery Board. It was due to council-supported matching dollars that we were able to submit the grant request.”

The House approved $500,000 of the city’s requested $1 million for the downtown revitalization project, Jones said.

The city of Blaine’s public works and community development services departments created the downtown revitalization project after the city was continuously running into problems fixing city infrastructure on an as-needed basis.

Demolition nears for old city hall

The city of Blaine is finishing moving out of old city hall at 344 H Street and preparing to demolish the building this summer.

Blaine Police Department (BPD), the last city department to be using the building, expected to move its evidence room out of old city hall by the end of the week ending April 16, chief Donnell Tanksley said during the meeting.

“The rest of the city departments have moved all of their items out with the exception of just a handful of things that we have questions about,” Jones said.

Public works director Bernie Ziemianek said he hoped to have the demolition specifications finished by mid-May and would start the demolition in June or July. An asbestos removal company is working to remove the material from flooring and walls, he said.

Councilmember Garth Baldwin asked council to make a plan if artifacts are found as the building is demolished.

“The citizens will say something if all of the sudden they tear that facade off and there’s some old, funky stuff out there and then we let a wrecking ball hit it, I don’t want to disappoint people,” Baldwin said.

Ziemianek said it would be possible to restore the wood on the building’s second floor and the city is preserving a few pieces of white molding where people inscribed their names during the first half of the 20th century.

In early 2020, city council directed the city manager and finance director to seek $2.5 million in bond funding to preserve some of the old city hall land for BPD’s new evidence room. Council decided to delay looking for the money once the pandemic started, but Jones said it would need to be brought up again now that the building is coming down.

The city currently has ownership of the property but Jones asked council to reconsider this at a later meeting.

“I don’t want the city to be an owner of a vacant lot in the middle of a downtown we’re trying to redevelop,” Jones said. “If we have a purpose for it, that’s fantastic. If we don’t, I would ask you to reconsider that.”

Council approves new backhoe for public works

Blaine City Council approved public works’ request to purchase and replace the city’s backhoe for $140,411.

The city’s current backhoe has been used for 31 years, when it was first brought to the city in 1989, according to city documents. A memo prepared for council said repairs from the backhoe’s use over the years has increased maintenance cost and parts replacement.

“Replacing the older backhoe with a more modern piece of machinery will aid us in directly supporting water projects and other departmental needs into the future,” the memo states.