The first timber sale of the the year is wrapping up, and county commissioners are optimistic.

The sale of timber on three tracks of land owned by Grays Harbor is bringing in almost 10 percent more money than expected.

At the Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, three bids were accepted, one each from Murphy Company, Sierra Pacific Industries and Chehalis Valley Timber, to harvest the tracts. They bid a total of $4.28 million to harvest about 11.8 million board-feet of timber.

The wood was estimated to bring in about $3.9 million.

“Last year, we had several sales that didn’t get a bid,” Commissioner Vickie Raines said.

“We had to extend a couple sales because the market was so bad,” Commissioner Randy Ross said.

The commissioners couched their enthusiasm saying one sale does not make a trend for the year. The next sale is Feb. 28 for timber on four tracts totaling about half the amount of the January sales. The February sale is expected to fetch about $1.7 million.

OTHER BUSINESS

Budget hearings: The commissioners set hearings this month for Feb. 18 to hear from the public on three supplemental budget resolutions and one emergency budget resolution, which would provide $25,000 to help fund Blue Zones efforts to improve health across the county. Blue Zones, in an effort led by Summit Pacific Medical Center, would survey the viability of starting a program in Grays Harbor County to change spending and lifestyle habits to improve health outcomes. For more on Blue Zones, go to www.bluezones.com.

Two of the supplemental budget resolutions are fund transfers for the Pacific Beach Sewer Bond.