The Morton City Council convened for its regular monthly meeting at the Bob Lyle Community Center on Monday, June 23, and approved an airport aid grant application for Washington state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) funds for repairs needed at Morton’s Strom Field Airport.
Additionally, councilors also approved a payment for cleanup services carried out by Gibbs & Olson Inc. of Longview for sweeping and rolling recently carried out on the streets of Morton as residents continue to deal with the effects of last year’s failed Otta Seal failure.
The council also approved both its updated six-year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) and updated Washington state Department of Ecology shoreline master plan.
Airport in need of repairs
While more of an airstrip in East Lewis County rather than a full airport, repairs are needed to maintain emergency access to Strom Field, according to Councilor Richard Vanderlip. The runway is located at the southeast corner of Morton just off of Temple Road.
“The culvert right in front of the entrance, it’s starting to fail,” Vanderlip said. “And EMS has had concerns that it could fail while they’re going over the top of it.”
According to the grant application, repairing the culvert will cost an estimated $250,000, with the city providing $12,500 of that and WSDOT aviation division funds covering the rest.
Vanderlip explained other repairs are needed at the airport too, including a resurfacing of the entire runway.
“This work will repair and rebuild the existing runway, apron and taxiway, which is in complete disrepair,” he said.
Strom Field’s runway is 1,810 feet long, according to airnav.com, and repairing and resurfacing it will cost an estimated $805,350. City of Morton staff are proposing to provide $40,267 of that from the city’s budget and cover the remaining costs with WSDOT funds.
The airstrip has a helipad for emergency services, but it also is suffering from years of being exposed to East Lewis County elements.
“The pad area for the Life Flight helicopter is very rough and coming apart, making safe transitions for Life Flight patients very unsafe,” Vanderlip said. “The overall condition (of Strom Field) is very unsafe and becoming unacceptable for incoming and outgoing planes and helicopters.”
Helipad repairs are estimated to cost $155,650, with $7,782.50 coming from Morton’s budget. All three projects have a combined cost of $1,211,000, with the City of Morton paying $60,550 of that total.
As for the hangars are Strom Field, Morton City Clerk LuAnn Ward explained while the city owns the land the hangars were on, the hangars themselves are owned privately, and the city leases the land.
“Those are in good shape,” Ward added.
Road condition update
Although some areas of Morton’s roads are still rough following a failed Otta Seal project attempted last year, repeated extra rolling and sweeping over the last few months has helped re-flatten the roads and limit rock and dust shedding.
During Monday’s meeting, the council approved a second payment for that extra work to Gibbs & Olson, and Morton Mayor Rick Mead gave an update as to the next steps being taken to finish fixing the roads.
“We still have work coming our way. What we’re asking for now is to pay for the work they’ve done,” Mead said.
He added while the city is paying for the work right now, the Washington state Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) will reimburse the city. TIB funds paid for the initial Otta seal which failed as well.
As for the remaining work, another round of sweeping and then another seal will be applied to the roads, followed by repainting the road stripes.
“We were gonna try to get it all crammed in before the (Morton Loggers’) Jubilee,” Mead said. “But then if something happened and it went south during the Jubilee, we would be in bigger chaos and a mess, so they’re looking at coming in towards the end of August.”
As for the new seal, it won’t be Otta Seal, though Mead added the extent and size of the seal is still being discussed.
“It’ll look like the Morton Market parking lot … To be honest I don’t know (the details), they just told me, ‘a sealing,’” he said.
Chip sealing has been discussed, including to a possible thickness of an eighth of an inch.
Transportation improvement and Ecology plans
With updates to both being required by state law, the Morton City Council unanimously approved its updated six-year TIP and Ecology shoreline master plans Monday.
The TIB requires a six-year TIP to apply for TIB funding for municipal road projects. Scheduled for 2026 in Morton are repairs to Cottlers Lane and Temple Avenue.
Repairs to Cottlers Lane are expected to cost $167,300, with the city required to pay 5%, or $8,350, of that total to get TIB funding.
The Temple Avenue project, with the road providing access to Arbor Health Morton Hospital, is expected to cost $1,062,900. The City of Morton’s 5% match for TIB funding for this project is $53,150 according to the TIP.
Strom Field repairs are also included in Morton’s TIP, with the runway repairs scheduled for 2027 and helipad repairs in 2028.
Ecology’s shoreline master plan covers both the Tilton River and Lake Creek in Morton, setting guidelines to protect these natural resources and promote public access and recreation.
To learn more about this plan, visit the city’s website at https://visitmorton.com/city-hall/shoreline-master-program/.
