Station's second phase awarded $900,000

Job-creating projects in Central Washington received a big helping hand from U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) on the approved 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Bill.

Senator Murray, who chairs the THUD committee, announced the recipients included on the bill July 21 and among them, Leavenworth's Icicle Station Phase II has been appropriated $900,000.

"Especially now, it is critical to steer funding into transportation projects that create jobs and boost local economies in our own backyard in Central Washington," said Senator Murray in a press release. "This funding will go to support community projects like a community center in Buena and new buses in Chelan, and I'm committed to continue securing investments for these and other local needs."

Leavenworth Mayor Rob Eaton has been working on getting the project on the bill for more than a year, and now with only one remaining hurdle, the bill passing at the Senate level this fall, Eaton said he thinks it's great to have come this far with so much support and will need the community's support again to finish Icicle Station.

"Phase two of the project will be comprised of the depot itself, a larger passenger depot to house people during bad weather especially, but before we do that we need to get some track work done," Eaton said. "BNSF will need to shorten a track where they store things and create another small track for that so that needs to be done, in a nutshell, before the depot will be complete."

The cost for the second phase is estimated at $1 million.

"The plan is to get a request for a proposal in probably the next four to six weeks for engineering services to come up with the engineer and design documents," Eaton said. "In early 2011 then, we'll go out for bid and we're hoping to get a bid and if all goes well, have the construction completed by June 2011."

Awards in the bill for central Washington ranged from $400,000 to $2 million.

"We are still coming up with the rest of the funding and as a community we have to come up with another $100,000 to get this thing done," he said. "So I will be working over the next two months with city council and other potential funding agencies."

Eaton said he has worked extensively with Senator Murray and her staff for the last year and a half. To request being put on the bill, he said he had to put together information on the project itself and the impact it has had on the community.

"She gets millions of dollars worth of requests every year but we're a competitive project and we're working very hard to get it done," he said.

In the first eight months of the Icicle Station's opening, 7,200 riders have come through the Icicle Station.

"We were only expecting 4,000 in the first year so we've already exceeded that," he said.

Chelsea Gorrow can be reached at 548-5286 or reporter@leavenworthecho.com.