POULSBO — More than the color of the leaves is changing in Little Norway as the city council addresses a mountain of issues in the next four weeks.

In that time period, council members will receive a tentative schedule for the State Route 305 widening project, make a decision on the proposed municipal campus site, begin the exploration of possibilities for the now-closed Marine Science Center and finally arrive at the preliminary draft of the city’s 2006 budget.

“It’s actually seasonal, because when the October rains come, a lot of major construction has to stop,” explained Councilman Mike Regis. “It’s a good time of year.”

All of the issues being discussed in the next four weeks have been previously discussed, so there shouldn’t be anything new, he said.

“It’s a good time of year because it brings a lot of things to conclusion or resolves them,” Regis said.

Washington State Department of Transportation project engineer Steve Fuchs will make a presentation to the council tonight as he is expected to outline the general timeline of the project that will widen SR 305 from Bond Road to just past Sol Vei Way.

“He will probably go over traffic control and impacts to city streets during construction,” said Poulsbo City Engineer Andrezj Kasiniak.

Fuchs will also probably make a request for permission to work at night, which would have to be granted by the council under the Poulsbo Municipal Code, he added.

“To what extent, I don’t know, it could be for the entire project or just the culverts,” Kasiniak said, noting that the placement of culverts would take a considerable amount of time early on during the project.

But before any actual widening takes place, the contractor will have to build several retaining walls, including one on the east side of the highway, from Hollywood Video to about 400 feet south of Bond Road, he said.

“That will take quite a bit of time and they’ll probably get the new channel for Dogfish Creek completed as well,” Kasiniak said.

The contract will replace a total of 10 culverts, including the one south of the Hostmark Street/SR 305 intersection. Dogfish Creek will be rerouted west of the highway in a more natural flow instead of running parallel to it like it currently does.

Councilwoman Connie Lord said the project will have numerous impacts on businesses in the city and is looking forward to tonight’s presentation.

“It is a very crucial project that will have a lot of impacts,” Lord said.

While the SR 305 presentation won’t require any action by the council, the municipal campus proposal slated for its Oct. 19 meeting will.

The initial site plan was unveiled Sept. 27 at an open house hosted by the city’s municipal campus planning committee. Architects from Tacoma-based BLRB Architects were in attendance to answer questions and listen to ideas based on their presentation.

Even though the presentation is slated for next week’s meeting, Lord said she’s not ready to make a decision on the proposal yet.

“I still have a lot of questions and if it’s not the right site, then it’s not the right site,” she said, noting that access to the police station is one of her biggest concerns.

Instead of making a decision to make a decision, Lord said she would rather see the council agree to ask for an extension of 60 days from Olympic Property Group because of concerns raised by the proposed site plan.

A week after making a decision on the municipal campus, the Marine Science Center will take center stage as the public gets its first opportunity to weigh in on the building’s future.

Under the building’s current financing, only 10 percent of it can be used by a non-governmental entity unless the city sets aside funding to pay off an equivalent amount of the bonds to its non-governmental use.

“Hopefully, we’ll have some numbers crunched by then,” Lord said, noting last week’s presentation brought several issues to the table.

The Oct. 26 workshop should be viewed as the starting point for deciding the building’s future, she said.

Once October turns to November, the council will address its last pre-election issue as Finance Director Nanci Lien presents the preliminary draft of the 2006 budget Nov. 2.

The council’s finance/administration committee has been hearing departmental budget presentations for the last six weeks and so far, there are no major changes in store for the 2006 budget.

“We always have a pretty good handle on our budget, so I think that ought to be fine,” Lord said.