Washington’s City Council wants to explore several options when it comes to repairing or replacing the boardwalk that runs from the North Carolina Estuarium to just east of Moss Landing.

The council reached that decision during its review of the city’s 2018-2022 capital-improvements plan Monday. The CIP includes nearly $500,000 to replace the west end of the boardwalk during the 2017-2018 fiscal year budget and another $500,000 to replace the east end of the boardwalk in fiscal year 2018-2019.

Kristi Roberson, the city’s parks and recreation director, said the boardwalk project could be paid for, in part, with grants. She also noted the CIP includes $90,000 in the upcoming fiscal year to pay for the first phase of replacing the bulkhead at Havens Gardens, followed by two more phases at a cost of $92,500 each.

Councilman Doug Mercer said that replacing the boardwalk’s wooden slats with concrete slats would require replacing the boardwalk’s wooden pilings with concrete pilings (similar to those at the Municipal Pier at the waterfront) because the wooden pilings would not support the weight of the concrete slats. Mercer also said he would prefer to use the $500,000 earmarked for the west end of the boardwalk to help pay for replacing the bulkhead at Havens Gardens.

“Kristi, you mentioned at the last meeting or so the potential for a half-million-dollar grant to rehab the boardwalk. I’d much rather apply for a half-million-dollar grant to do the bulkhead work. It’s only been two or three years since we replaced all the planking on the boardwalk,” Mercer said.

Roberson said the boardwalk is developing maintenance “issues.”

The city would seek a grant from the Division of Coastal Management to help pay for the boardwalk project. Under the grant conditions, the DCM grant would pay for 90 percent of the project, with the city providing the money to cover the remaining 10 percent of the project’s cost, about $50,000, said John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources, at the council’s Feb. 13 meeting. The grant application is due in early April.

“I’d much rather leave the 90 grand in there for the boardwalk and ask them to apply for a grant and see if we can’t get enough money to do the whole thing at one time rather than splitting it up into three or four projects and leave the boardwalk for another year,” Mercer said. “I have some reservations about replacing the boardwalk with all this concrete and not knowing what the structural integrity of all the pilings and support work is.”

Mayor Mac Hodges disagreed with Mercer, saying replacing the wooden boardwalk with a concrete boardwalk makes sense. “They put them in there to stay. They go right through hurricanes. Your pier you put out there is the exact same thing. It went right through that Hurricane Matthew fine,” Hodges said.

Later, Mercer said, “I don’t think we’re going to do that boardwalk unless we get a grant.”

Rodman plans to bring more detailed information about the proposed boardwalk project to its meeting Monday. The council will use that information to help it make a decision regarding the boardwalk.