Wilson Creek port approves new building

Commissioner-elect hopes process will reverse decision

WILSON CREEK — The Port of Wilson Creek is moving ahead with its building development, over the protests of a Stratford man who will join the port in January.

Sheldon Ralston, who was voted in as port commissioner in November, defeating commissioner Derek Stevens, last week urged residents in the district to attend Wednesday evening's port meeting at Wilson Creek town hall.

Ralston charged Wilson Creek port commissioners Stevens and Gary Ribail want to spend most of the money available for economic development at the Wilson Creek Airport on a new 60-by-120-foot administrative building.

Ralston said last week the building "has no prospects of being leased to bring dollars into the port," and no cost benefit ratio exists.

"They don't have any tenants," he said. "It's promoted kind of as a community center and apparently has little to do with the airport."

Ribail said last week that the building would provide the port with office and meeting space, but declined to respond to Ralston's comments.

Ralston said Wednesday's meeting was "very short."

"Basically, they called the meeting to order, proposed a budget, and listened to a few comments from the audience," he said, noting that he provided two or three pages of comments plus the state attorney general's opinion on the requirements for a port to have a plan.

"But that didn't really phase anybody. They passed $300,000 for building development out of $375,000 that was estimated revenues."

Between the building and several other items, Ralston estimated, the port appropriated $327,000 out of the $375,000 of estimated revenues.

In January, a Washington State Auditor's Office accountability audit report found that the port district did not comply with the Open Public Meetings Act and was not able to provide evidence that all expenditures had been approved by its board of commissioners.

Ralston said the auditor asked the port to be aware of the requirements of public notice. He said the port disregarded the publishing of notice of the meeting, and placed notice in the Wilson Creek post office, though many people in the port district don't go there.

"They are excluded from the process if they have an interest," Ralston said of the people who don't use the post office.

Ralston said that there was not a good response to his call for attendance at the meeting, with about 20 to 25 people in attendance.

Wilson Creek resident Gary Baker said he has been attending port meetings since January 2004, and it is his opinion that the district "has been everything except a port district."

"I'm very pro-port district because I think they're a branch of government (that is) entrepreneurial and can bring jobs," he said, opining that the Port of Wilson Creek has done anything but. "I think they've done a disservice to taxpayers in the area. I think they operated under self-imposed rules contrary to any of the standard port ideologies."

Ralston said last week that he thinks he would be able to change things when he takes office, noting that he and commissioner Ron Lesser are both on the conservative side when it comes to thinking about the future. Lesser declined to comment.

"I don't feel bad; I have hope that the process will prevail," Ralston said Thursday morning. "I think that in the January meeting, we will look at the options that we have, and just see where we can go, and maybe revisit the issues."

Ribail and Stevens did not respond to phone calls at press time.