WILKERSON, WA – After hand-delivering over 100 letters to Washington, D.C., Pierce County Councilmember Dave Morell says emergency grants could save a historic mining town that the state left out to dry.
Washington State Route 165 leads hundreds of thousands of tourists to Mount Rainier National Park every year. The highway stretches through Wilkeson to one of the few entrances, but not before crossing a 103-year-old bridge the state closed last month, cutting off access to the park.
The Fairfax Bridge is rapidly deteriorating after the Legislature put off years of maintenance. Morell said a few coats of paint every three decades could have avoided this, but the state is out of options. Years could pass before it can afford to rebuild, upending Wilkeson’s economy…