UMATILLA COUNTY — After being devastated by February’s historic flooding in the region, Harris Memorial Park is on pace to reopen by June thanks to significant progress in repairs made in recent weeks.

“Quite honestly, I’m very happy with where we are up there today,” Umatilla County Public Works Director Tom Fellows said on Wednesday. “The grass is growing back, and I’m not so sure we aren’t going to have to start mowing the lawn there pretty soon.”

On Wednesday, the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners approved payments of nearly $200,000 for repair work that has been done at Harris Park and elsewhere in the county following the floods.

The park, which is the only one owned by the county and is located on the south fork of the Walla Walla River just over a 12 miles southeast of Milton-Freewater, wasn’t reachable for weeks because a bridge connecting to it was washed away. A temporary bridge has since been constructed, and Fellows said it will have to remain in place until August or September when they hope to install a permanent one.

The county approved a payment of $33,914 for Don Jackson Excavation, which Fellows said has moved 10,000 to 12,000 cubic yards of material from the park and assisted in bridge repairs. And though there was no expectation for it, Don Jackson Excavation also donated $8,000 worth of labor done at the park back to the county.

“He recognizes what the park does for the community up there and is very community minded,” Fellows said.

Progress also picked up at the park because Umatilla Electric Cooperative was already able to restore power at the park, which wasn’t initially expected to happen until the middle of May. In addition to this, the county approved a payment of $13,443 to UEC for transitioning the park’s power lines underground to protect them from a future flood.

The board additionally approved paying Blue Mountain Electrical $16,695 for replacing and consolidating other electrical services in the park’s buildings.

Don Jackson Excavation also previously provided work for the county at the Dorothy Bridge on Walla Walla River Road, which Fellows said came in $10,000 under the budget. On Wednesday, the board had to approve nearly $9,000 in engineering work done on the bridge by Anderson Perry & Associates.

“I was up there twice last week and it’s amazing how you can still obviously see the damage of the flood, but it’s beginning to diminish in terms of immediate visibility,” Umatilla County Commissioner Geroge Murdock said.

For work along the Umatilla River, the county approved payments of over $20,000 of more rock material to help reinforce the river banks that were washed out along Bingham and Cayuse roads.

“We might have one or two more of these moving forward, but this should be just about the bulk of it,” Fellows said.

While all the other payments approved by the county are expected to eventually be reimbursed by FEMA once President Donald Trump officially signs a presidential disaster declaration for the floods, Fellows said some of this work along Bingham and Cayuse roads could be reimbursed through a fund with the Federal Highway Administration.

“Depending on whether they consider it permanent repair or initial emergency repair will be the difference between 100% reimbursement or 89% reimbursement,” Fellows said.

While Umatilla County crews and private contractors have pushed ahead with repairs in recent weeks, public works crews from Columbia County, Washington, spent more than two weeks in the immediate aftermath of the floods helping with repairs. On Wednesday, the county approved paying them back $102,374 for their efforts.

“I will tell you that we wouldn’t be as far along today as we are had they not come up and helped us,” Fellows said.