Ocean Shores will make a formal application for federal funding to help construct the city’s first vertical evacuation structure for tsunami protection, and money for local matching costs is being considered as part of the two-year city budget for 2019-2020.

Ocean Shores Mayor Crystal Dingler and city department staff this past week presented the details of the city’s first two-year spending plan, with a revenue forecast they said was based on conservative estimates of growth.

“Housing starts are still up. This past month slumped just a little bit, but we have a lot of houses in the works,” Dingler said of the city’s growing residential construction business. “Permitting is bringing in a fair amount of money, but we did cut that back a bit next year because we don’t think that is sustainable.”

“We’re going to continue to want to be conservative,” Dingler said of the overall approach that does include some ongoing and new proposals, such as $80,000 for design of a new combined City Hall and Police facility. Another is for the city’s first vertical evacuation structures in the event of a tsunami. On Monday night, the City Council voted 7-0 to begin the grant application process for that proposal.

Budget highlights

At the start of an all-day Council study session on the budget Oct. 18, Dingler also highlighted the initial budgeted funding proposal ($245,000) for what is called the high dunes trail, which would create a firebreak and public access pathway along the outer dunes.

“We did not get grants for this,” Dingler said. “We will be doing our best to bring more money in, but getting us started on this would be really good for the people of Ocean Shores and for our visitors.”

Dingler also noted a proposed $44,000 agreement with the Ride the Waves tour bus service to begin downtown service from the hotels to the businesses: “We’re trying to get people out of the hotels, off the beach and into the businesses.”

Overall, the proposed budget adds no new debt, Dingler noted. “Everything we are doing, we either have grants or are using existing funds. We’re also proposing putting money into various pockets we have.”

One of those is a proposal to put aside $100,000 for future needs to deal with coastal erosion: “Though we have the Corps of Engineers working on the jetty, that’s not going to make a difference for the erosion we are having inside the mouth of the bay, or perhaps the erosion we are having on both ends of the rock.”

The proposal to add a city administrator position would increase the salaries and wages of the executive department by $218,375 over the two-year period, with the person being hired during the next year.

“We need that continuity between people even if I were to be re-elected,” Dingler said, referring to the fact that her second term as mayor ends in 2020.

The administrator would effectively “free the mayor up to do all of those other things that we just haven’t had time for,” according to Dingler. In the last budget, the Council approved the hiring of a city facilities manager, a human resources specialist and a marketing manager for the city-operated Convention Center.

Tsunami evacuation

Although the budget does not contain any large new public works projects, the city will now formally make an application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for grant funding to build the first tsunami evacuation structures. If the city were to obtain such a grant, the matching funds required locally would be 25 percent, Dingler said.

“We need to be planning for that. We may or may not get it,” she said of the grant. “But we feel we have a good chance, partly because of the topography of Ocean Shores.”

The city’s grant writer, Sarah Bisson, said it was unclear what the final cost breakdown could be, depending on how big of a project the city chooses. “The state has recommended that we serve anywhere from 600 to 1,000 people” with the first structures.

Dingler said the council could put a cap on local funding for such a project, but noted the city is waiting to hear from the state about what might be required. “We’re not committing to numbers tonight,” Dingler said.

There will be a public presentation on vertical evacuation from 5-6 p.m. on Nov. 13, prior to the regular Council meeting.

Public process

During the initial budget study session last week, city Finance Director Angela Folkers explained the budget process will last until January when all changes and revisions are adopted and then presented in a final document. “We don’t expect to hand over this budget and have it approved as is,” Folkers said.

“We really did take into consideration the things we have been hearing from the public, the Council, the staff.” Last year’s economic success was “an anomaly,” Folkers added. “We’re not budgeting to anticipate that going forward into 2019-2020.”

“I’ve heard a couple of economists say that things might be the best we’re ever going to get and we might see a downturn here soon. We just don’t want to assume that things are going to be as good as they are right now. So we did take that into consideration and build that into the revenue forecast.”

At the first public hearing on the proposed budget Monday night, resident Don Williams was the only citizen to question or comment on some of the details. The next public hearing will be at the Council meeting on Nov. 13.

“I was really surprised that no one asked what are the salary increases,” Williams said of the Council’s study session. “That seems like a fundamental thing to ask since we pay 70 percent of our budget in salaries.”

Williams also questioned if there was a way the city could track the full cost of marketing since it had hired a new marketing manager, with the costs for marketing divided among two funds. “You should create a new fund for marketing and whatever they do,” he said.

On the spending side of the budget, Williams encouraged the Council to consider moving ahead with street repairs with money already in reserve while it begins next year to collect the tax funds from the voter-approved two-tenths of one percent local sales tax increase for road repairs and street maintenance.

“I think you have to plan for doing some kind of street work next year,” Williams said, asking for an analysis of where there are excess dollars available, such as a fund set up to guarantee repayments and administration of the 2010 road LID.

He also questioned if the revenue estimates were too conservative, with projected decreases of 6 percent in business and occupation taxes, or 17 percent in licensing and permit fees, with a projected 23 percent drop in building permits.

“Do we really need to hire a new permit technician?” Williams asked.