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NEWPORT — Maintenance that was supposed to repair Newport roads last year damaged some of them instead, two audience members complained at the Newport City Council’s May 19 meeting.
Pat Williams said workers did a poor job of laying out chipseal up Quail Loop during last year’s maintenance. Then, the chipseal was torn by a resident doing wheelies on the road shortly after.
When he tried to fix part of the road himself, one worker stopped him, claiming the crews would do it. But they did not, the Williams said.
“It’s worse than it was before they tore it out, in my opinion,” he said. “It’s pretty bad.”
Former council member Sam Brooks, who had been a Newport councilmember for seven years, added that potholes on Quail Street made it “pretty hard” to drive up to the houses on Quail Loop. Brooks and the other audience member said the potholes are “so bad” that residents — Brooks included — cut a corner just to avoid hitting them.
Williams said his own wife had taken a wheelbarrow and tried to fix some of the potholes herself.
“We would sure appreciate it if we could get some potholes fixed up on Quail Street because it’s literally pretty dangerous up there right now,” Brooks said. “Besides tearing the car to pieces.”
Council member Mark Zorica asked if they had contacted Newport City Hall about their complaints. While they had not, Brooks said they told Public Works director Dave North about Quail Loop, so he “probably knows it’s a mess.”
Brooks told The Miner Tuesday, the day after the city council meeting, that the potholes have been fixed.
In response to Brooks and Williams’ comments, city administrator Abby Gribi said that much of the damage to Laurelhurst Drive was caused by a “longstanding” water leak that will be fixed with city funds. As for Quail Street, she has to assess the damage before additional repairs can be funded.
“It’s not what we have the funding for this year, because it’s very specific in the allocation of where the roadwork has to occur based on the funding,” Gribi said.
This year’s maintenance was scheduled to start the week of June 16. A grant from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board will fund the maintenance of 44 more blocks, with the maintained streets projected to last seven to eight years. This year, Gribi said the maintenance will be performed in “much smaller” sections.
Before audience participation, Gribi updated the council on a water leak in the city last week.
The city was forced to shut down a water main to fix a pipe that had gotten a “pea-sized” hole, Gribi said. As a result, 40 to 60 gallons of water leaked out of the pipe per minute. An emergency water shut-off affected Laurelhurst Drive to West Quail North.
“A lot of those are coming to end of life,” Gribi said. “A good, galvanized, you hope will last 15 to 20 years. This is probably past that.”
Regarding ongoing funding asks, Gribi announced that the city had been awarded $920,000 from the Public Works Board to continue engineering the wastewater plant. This funding will allow the city to move to construction for phase one of the engineering. The $920,000 is half a loan, half a grant, so the city is obligated to pay $460,000.
Gribi also received an award letter for rehabilitating the water reservoir by Laurelhurst Drive, which is at a 25% subsidy. She expects the city to have a contract by the end of September and for rehabilitation to start in October.
Later in the meeting, the council unanimously voted to enter into an agreement for planning consult services for the city’s 2027 Comprehensive Plan. The agreement is with Kimley-Horn for $200,000 or what the city receives in state funding.
“We have two years’ worth of work coming our way with this,” Gribi said. “Our previous planner Rachel Granrath, who is with Kimley-Horn now, has a really strong understanding and background with Pend Oreille County.”
In her report to the council, Greater Newport Area Chamber of Commerce President Madi Campbell said the chamber had applied for a grant from AARP earlier this year, but did not receive it as one among “a record number of applications.” Campbell attributed this number to recent freezes in federal funding.
Though the chamber did not secure that grant, Campbell said it has identified another one it hopes to use for upgrades to the Visitor Center. And the chamber will soon distribute its own small grant for a storefront improvement project.
“Just to try to incentivize people to beautify Newport one door at a time — or window,” Campbell said. “So we’ll be rolling that out soon. We’re just working out a couple little kinks.”
