Duck, duck, goose on the Palouse

Recently, a failed job search put me in touch with at least six economic agencies pledging to lay a golden egg for the Palouse area. Do any of these efforts make a dent to improve the economic vitality of Whitman County’s 48,000 residents?

At least six geese compete for space in the nest we call the Palouse, including Whitman, Garfield, Columbia and Asotin counties. Just who will put a feather in their cap by securing farm jobs and pumping cash into main street economies?

Let me introduce some of the contenders: Southwest Economic Development Association, Start Up Palouse, One Palouse, Keeping Rural Relevant, Washington State University Extension Office and the granddaddies – Port agencies of Whitman, Asotin, Columbia and Garfield Counties. Not to be left out of the party is USDA Rural Development which also covers southeast Washington. How are they not tripping over each other?

Operating within these agencies are sub-agencies—like the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship – a slosh of alphabet soup that compete for your eyes and your money. Do we see results from these efforts?

Financially teetering along the Snake River is a $240 million failed straw board production plant that gleams with unmet potential. Columbia Pulp received $133.6 million in tax exempt bonds from yet another contender, the Washington Economic Development Finance Authority.

The 140,000-square-foot plant employed 80 people before shutting down last summer. Columbia Pulp projected they would employ 120 people with “family wage” jobs and provide a market for grain stubble easing farmers’ need to plow or burn fields following harvest.

Recently, a Pullman neighborhood shot down the Port’s once ambitious plan to annex 80 acres of residential land into heavy industrial use.

AgTech OS withdrew its plans to construct a biodiesel plant on the Old Wawawai highway citing pushback from these neighbors despite the Port’s decision to take their request down a notch to an Industrial Research Park for an Agriculture Advancement Campus. This goose promised economic vitality by constructing a canola seed-crushing mill at the site.

What a shame for Pullman area farmers who would have benefited most from a biodiesel plant. The area is rife with Italian rye and farmers have the space and annual rainfall to grow Round Up Ready canola to clean the area up.

Alas, the country mouse and the city mouse could not agree and AgTech OS scuttled the plan.

Earlier I mentioned SEWEDA, 98% of its operating budget is provided by the Department of Commerce. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it should not hide behind a nonprofit status to shelter board business.

I attended a SEWEDA board meeting and I would enjoy telling readers about their lofty economic goals, however, my request to preview the board packet was declined.

SEWEDA finances four county managing directors and support staff. The current open position advertises an annual salary of $45-50k, plus benefits. Quick math done on my bar napkin adds up to a quarter-million dollars to staff SEWEDA. What do you think?

Do we see the benefit of our federal and state Chamber of Commerce dollars trickle down to our local communities through SEWEDA?

Let’s place a bur under CIE’s saddle.

Last September, CIE handed out $500 mini-grants to six “diverse” entrepreneurs during a public forum. When I asked for recipient names and their corresponding pitches, I was the duck, shot down midflight. Executive Director Mike Skinner and colleague Juan Garcia, Palouse Pilot through Washington State University, would not budge.

“What do you plan to do with the information,” Skinner asked. My intention simply did not matter, these public funds provided to CIE from the state and federal departments of commerce are subject to America’s Sunshine Laws and the state’s Open Public Records law. Just asking that question is a violation of the law.

Why wasn’t this information heralded from the Colfax branch library rooftop? Why would CIE turn down the opportunity to brag to the community about how these budding entrepreneurs planned to use their grants?

Poking the staid bear I said, “Had I been at the ceremony, I would hold this information in hand, correct?” Skinner nodded during our nearly hour-long conversation about CIE via ZOOM earlier this year.

Too often the only individuals who make a living by seeding economic development on the Palouse are executive directors and support staff running these agencies. As for you and me, our fields remain fallow.

––Becky Dickerson is the former editor and publisher of The Current. A St. John farmer and resident.