Port to seek grants for Touchet Valley Trail

DAYTON–Two Washington State agencies with grant programs that offer funding every two years will be targeted for grant funding for the Touchet Valley Trail, Port of Columbia Commissioners will consider as one of the April meeting’s agenda items.

Port commissioners will consider the matter at the commission’s regular April meeting, Wednesday, April 13, which will be held at the Fairgrounds Youth Building and via Zoom.

The two agencies are the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) and Department of Transportation (DOT), said Jennie Dickinson, Executive Director for the Port.

The RCO, Dickinson said, supports boating, wildlife, trails and other recreation-based initiatives. The Port is well positioned, Dickinson said, for the up to $1 million grant, thanks to local city, county and port entities crafting a cooperative parks master plan.

“To be eligible,” Dickinson said, “you must have an approved plan.” The local plan was created several years ago and updated recently.

This grant has match requirements, which could be met with grant funds from the accompanying DOT grant or funds already expended on trail design. “The strategy here is to apply so there’s no requirement for a local match,” Dickinson said.

The Department of Transportation’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Program grant may be around $800,000 to $1 million. “The DOT wants us to apply to get people off Highway 12,” Dickinson said, “and the RCO seems eager for us to write a grant because not many applications come from southeastern Washington.”

Dickinson said consultant Anderson•Perry & Associates of Walla Walla has been asked to break the project into segments because it is unlikely that funding for the entire project from Dayton to Waitsburg would be available at one time.

One of the more urgent needs is a linkage between Dayton and the Valley View Trailer Court, she said. “People are at risk if they’re walking on the road, and if they walk on the rail road tracks, technically, that’s trespassing,” Dickinson said.

“One phase could be from Dayton to the Trailer Park,” she said, “or from Dayton to Blue Mountain Station, or Dayton to the state park.”

Dickinson indicated that constructing a pedestrian bridge adjacent to the rail road bridge over the Touchet River in Dayton would likely be one of the goals, if this grant money is received.

From the pedestrian bridge, she said, the trail could transition to a bike lane on Highway 12 to Blue Mountain Station, where it might then jog back to the rail road right-of-way.

If the grant money provided enough to extend the trail to Valley View or the Lewis and Clark Trail State Park, it would be a good start, Dickinson said.

“We’ll have to see if there’s enough money with both these programs to see if that could be done,” she said.

Grant applications are due in May and the window of opportunity will not come around for approximately two years.