The City of Centralia received just over $1 million in the state's capital budget this year to install new lights for the softball complex at Fort Borst Park.
That funding is now certain after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the capital budget. The project will now begin with a cultural review of the site required by the state before moving forward with installing the new lights next year.
According to Centralia Deputy City Manager Amy Buckler, the field's old lights had to be removed in 2023 because the wooden poles supporting them had started to rot away. The new project will install steel poles, which should last longer against the elements, along with LED lights, which are better quality, more durable and more energy efficient.
The project is really just the next installment in a series of projects that have improved the many athletic facilities at Fort Borst Park. Last year, new lights were added to Wheeler Field. This year, six of the nine sports fields at the complex were replaced with turf fields, including one of the three softball fields that will benefit from the new lights.
To fund the softball field lights, the city applied for the roughly $1 million approved in the capital budget through the Youth Athletic Facilities Grant Program under the state's Recreation and Conservation Office. The project will also take advantage of $250,000 awarded from the TransAlta Weatherization Fund.
Buckler said that the representation of Rep. Peter Abbarno, who is a member of the House Capital Budget Committee, was instrumental in delivering the money to the local community.
The sum is among the larger amounts going to capital projects in the 20th Legislative District as part of this year's capital budget. Altogether, projects in the district are set to receive approximately $81 million as part of the capital budget.
This year's budget season was divisive and saw the majority Democrats frequently going back to the drawing board to assemble a budget with very little input from their Republican counterparts.
The Capital budget is generally a bipartisan effort as it is funded in large part by bonds, which require broader approval in the Legislature to pass. This year, Democrats had great enough numbers in both houses to impose their will on the process without Republican support; however, Republican legislators noted that this part of the budget remained cooperative despite the lack of bipartisan cooperation in the operations budget, which makes up the largest part of the state's money.
