Hearing to discuss possible new livestock market

Meeting held 10 a.m. Wednesday

MOSES LAKE — There might not be as many miles to travel for residents to sell their livestock.

A public hearing will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Moses Lake Fire Station on Third Avenue to discuss the possibility of bringing in a new livestock market.

"Whenever a new livestock market wants to start up, it has to be licensed by the Department of Agriculture," explained Leslie Alexander, assistant manager for the livestock identification program for the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

Before a new market can be opened, applicants have to go through an application and a hearing process. Alexander called the application standard. Once approved, a hearing is conducted to allow the industry to comment, be it pro or con, about the application.

While the Department of Agriculture is neutral, Alexander said concerns that might be expressed include a market's financial stability or competition issues.

The public hearing is in front of an administrative law judge, Alexander said, adding that Wednesday's hearing will be in front of Judge Edward Steinmetz out of Spokane, with the Office of Administrative Hearings. The judge will have already reviewed the application and will take verbal comments from the audience or written comments.

The judge will review and then make a recommendation to the director of agriculture whether the application should be granted, Alexander said. Once the judge makes the recommendation, the director will review and has 90 days to render a decision of whether or not to grant the application. If so, the applicant would have to activate their license, paying a license fee for a one-year license, and also have to secure bonding.

Alexander explained that licenses can sometimes be for a livestock market that has already been built, but is changing ownership and the new owners have to apply. The Moses Lake hearing is for a brand new facility that would start breaking ground when the application and license have been granted, she said.

"The last new livestock market built from the ground up was in Yelm, Wash., in the mid-1980s," Alexander said. "The applicant in this case is going cattle, horses and smaller livestock like pigs, sheep, goats, things like that."

Alexander said there used to be a lot more livestock markets in the area, but over recent years, markets have closed in Quincy, Ellensburg, Walla Walla and Okanogan for a variety of different reasons, including the purchase of one market by a development company.

Presently, only two markets are operating in eastern Washington, located in Davenport and Toppenish, Alexander said. There are two border livestock markets, one located in Lewiston and one in Hermiston, she added.

"With only two markets operating, the people that live in areas (without a market), it increases the travel distance that they have to take their cattle," she said. "The advantage of maybe having one locally would be having one that they don't have to travel so far to get to."

The number of people at a meeting has ranged from zero for a hearing about change or ownership to as high as 40 to 50 for a public hearing, Alexander said, noting that the latter number is more common.

The public hearing Wednesday will take place at 10 a.m. and should last approximately two hours, Alexander said.