The Mountlake Terrace City Council Monday night approved roughly $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to fund six new city projects.

After holding lengthy discussion regarding 14 possible projects at its March 16 meeting, councilmembers finally decided to fund six of those Monday night and continue discussion on the rest of them moving forward.

“What I’d like to do is ask [Finance Director Janella Lewis] to walk you through the ordinances before you so that you are in a position to take action if you choose to do so,” Acting City Manager Andrew Neiditz said. “So we’ll be moving those pieces forward, but again, with the understanding that there is more ARPA discussion to take place at a later date.”

At the March 16 meeting, councilmembers had only agreed to approve five funding opportunities but decided Monday to add one more – the 216th sidewalk project as part of the “Safe Routes to School” initiative. This project will cost roughly $200,000.

In addition to the sidewalk project, Lewis laid out the costs of the other five projects: Roughly $1.2 million for pavement preservation and an asphalt hot box truck, $75,000 for new IT equipment, $250,000 for 30 new police body cameras, $550,000 for backup generators at Mountlake Terrace City Hall and Fire Station #19 and $200,000 for an updated emergency 800 megahertz radio system.

The six projects total roughly $2.5 million – about half of the city’s remaining ARPA funds.

Originally, the council wanted to approve the sidewalk project funds for 2024, but Mayor Pro Tem Bryan Wahl moved to amend the motion and instead fund the project in 2023. The amendment passed unanimously as councilmembers agreed that student safety is a high priority in the city.

The amended motion also passed unanimously, providing the funding to the six city projects.

In other business, Recreation and Parks Department Director Jeff Betz talked to the council about an amendment to the city’s current land lease agreement for wireless telecommunication with TowerCo, a company that owns, builds and manages wireless infrastructure assets and properties for colocation.

In 2019, the city decided to remove the wireless infrastructure from the top of its water tower as repairs needed to be made that could potentially damage the communication equipment, Betz said.

“We issued [a request for proposal] for a vendor to construct a new wireless tower, or as we call it: A monopole,” he explained. “A lot of people ask … ‘What’s a monopole?’ It’s just a metal pole that we can put telecommunications equipment on top of.”

TowerCo was approved for the lease and the 195-foot pole was constructed on the site directly adjacent to the water towers as that was still the best vantage point for the equipment. The original land lease agreement allowed TowerCo a plot of 1,651 square feet that cost roughly $3,000 a month to lease.

“Recently, another company approached us and TowerCo about co-locating on that tower as well,” Betz said. “That would require additional ground lease space to accommodate their electrical needs. That total new space needed is about 280.5 square feet.”

Betz said the additional space needed will increase the lease cost by $521, which TowerCo has agreed to pay.

Mayor Pro Tem Wahl moved to approve the amendment to the existing lease agreement and the motion passed unanimously.

The council also recognized former Finance Director Ron Swanson Monday night. Swanson was Mountlake Terrace’s finance director from 1980-1998 and was also the artist who created the city’s current logo.

“Unfortunately, Ron is in the hospital this evening, so he is unable to be here,” Neiditz said.

However, Swanson’s wife and extended family showed up to show their appreciation for him and all the hard work he did for the city. Councilmember Laura Sonmore spoke highly of Swanson and said she remembers working with him when she would come to Mountlake Terrace City Hall for various high school assignments.

“We know keeping the budget balanced is an extremely difficult thing to do,” Sonmore said. “We honor you tonight and we wish you were here. We wish you well.”

Two proclamations were also read Monday night – one honoring the city’s late Traffic Engineer Marc Seferian and the other recognizing the upcoming holiday of Ramadan.

— By Lauren Reichenbach