Blankenship still has projects to see through, he says

RITZVILLE — Dan Blankenship said he decided to run for a second term as Adams County Commissioner because there’s still work he wants to do.

“I’ve got some projects that I’ve gotten started that I just want to see through,” he said. “I think my skill set still applies to the job. I think we’re having some successes.”

The Adams County Jail would be an area of focus in a second term, he said.

“One of the projects I want to get done (is) one we’re not having a great deal of success with at the moment — we need to get something done with our jail. It is still closed and it is creating bottlenecks in our criminal justice system where there are people out on the street that shouldn’t be there. It’s becoming a frustrating thing for the judges and everybody involved,” Blankenship said.

Adams County has received federal and state funding for upgrades to the existing building, but the federal funding presents its own challenge, Blankenship said.

“The federal dollars in particular don’t accrue to the county until the project is finished," Blankenship said. “We’re going to have to fund it, and that’s going to be a challenge.”

In addition, the jail isn’t built to accommodate the current prison population, he said.

“We’re going to have more (jail personnel) than we have, and we’re just going to have to find the extra dollars somehow,” he said.

Commissioners and other Adams County officials are working to obtain funding for bridge reconstruction that would allow the widening of the East Low Canal. Six bridges in Adams County need to be widened first; county officials have obtained funding for two. Blankenship said work may start on the first one by the end of 2024. Commissioners are working to obtain funding for the remaining four, he said.

Blankenship said he’s also trying to get funding to rebuild Schoonover Road near Ritzville.

“We’ve got money stored up - over several years of allocating state resources for the most part — to do, I think, the first four miles starting next year,” he said.

County officials are working on obtaining federal funding for an additional section, he said.

Road construction and maintenance is complicated by the difficulty for a rural county in obtaining adequate funding, he said.

“The last time the state increased the gas tax the counties got nothing. No share. Zero,” he said. “You add that this is the same state that is pushing people to drive electric cars, (and will) not give the counties a bigger share of what gas tax revenue remains.”

Blankenship said he has some things he would like to see done in Adams County, but that it’s one thing to come up with goals, and something else entirely to bring them to fruition. He learned that as a board member for the Washington Wheat Growers Association, he said.

“You start all of these things with a wish list — here are the three or four things you want to get done,” he said. “And circumstances and outside influences — your list gets stripped away into things you need to do.”

Adams County has received a federal grant to help expand broadband service around the county, and the town of Washtucna has received a separate, smaller grant. Blankenship said construction will start on the first phase before the end of 2024.

“The first phase will be the entire city of Ritzville and the entire town of Lind,” he said. “Phase two will be a sizable area south and west of the city limits of Othello. The grant was only allowed in areas that the FCC says are underserved. And the city of Othello, according to the FCC, already has (broadband) service.”

Blankenship said the materials needed for the Othello-area project already have been ordered, but that the permitting process is taking longer than it did in Ritzville and Lind.

Government in general, including county government, presents a challenge to people who are used to the private sector, he said.

“In private industry when you have a problem, you identify the problem. You figure out what it is going to cost, you figure out where you need to go to solve the problem, and if you can afford to solve it, you go solve it,” he said. "The speed, or the lack thereof, in government to address problems, between procurement rules, and laws, and studies that you have to get completed — these jail funds are a perfect example.”

The money has been allocated, but Adams County officials still have a lot of regulations to satisfy before they can actually start the project, he said.

“Yes, we’ve got the money appropriated, but we can’t just go start writing checks,” he said. That’s the frustrating thing. The speed at which government works is not very fast.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.