The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Wahkiakum County commissioners rejected one bid and put another on hold Tuesday to look for more funding for construction of a new ferry for the Puget Island-Westport run.

Commissioners had two bids last week for the construction project, both were over the engineer's estimate of $4.5 million. Nichols Brothers Boatbuilders was low bidder at $5.68 million and Diversified Marine was high at $7.15 million.

On Tuesday, the board aproved the recommendation of Public Works Director Pete Ringen to reject the bid from Diversified and to ask Nichols Brothers to hold their bid 45 days while county officials seek additional funding.

Ringen said the county has put together a funding package of $5.1 million in state and federal grants and theoretically could pay the difference out of county funds.

However, other costs associated with the project push the county's shortfall closer to $1.1 million, Ringen said. These include modifying the Puget Island landing to accommodate the new, larger ferry and for dredging in the area in front of the new landing.

Ringen said he had talked to Nichols Brothers and they were aware that the county wanted to hold the bid in suspense.

"I don't want to recommend moving forward and putting the county in a bad financial position," Ringen said. "We want to know the funding is there before committing to the project."

Ringen said he would contact the state and federal funding agencies to seek a boost in the state and federal contributions to the project.