By Brian Gawley

PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners will call for a public hearing next week on a proposed $295,000 Opportunity Fund grant to fund significant improvements to the city of Forks’ sewer treatment plant and potentially buy a backup generator.

The hearing would be scheduled for 10:30 a.m. April 23 in the commissioners’ meeting room at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St. in Port Angeles.

“The Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) for the City of Forks requires significant improvements and retrofits to prevent catastrophic failure,” a staff memo to the commissioners states.

“The improvements are required to ensure redundancy with key components, to increase capacity necessary to respond to development, and to prepare for expansion of the sewer district to businesses and neighborhoods with a high probability of failed septic systems.”

The funding is anticipated to allow the construction contract for the long-planned project to be awarded April 18, with construction scheduled to begin May 20, according to the city’s Opportunity Fund application on March 28.

Construction is scheduled to be completed by April 30, 2025, and the project should be operational by May 15, 2025, the application stated.

The grant application stated that, in addition to the requested $300,000 grant for the $3,682,731 project, the city’s match will be $1,024,524, and the amount raised to date is $3,400,134, which includes a 2022 Opportunity Fund grant of $2,375,610.

If any funding is left over, the purchase of a backup generator for the sewer plant is proposed.

The city’s match represents 94.5 percent of the money it received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.