Transportation discussion continues

Officials point to state, federal funding for transportation woes

GRANT COUNTY — For people like Terry Brewer, a noise wall soon to be erected along one of the area's major thoroughfares could mean the difference between securing a business in Grant County, or not.

The executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Council has heard comments from representatives of two different companies who have asked to look at sites away from the two-lane stretch of Highway 17, because that stretch lies across the frontage road from a school zone.

Even though the playground and classrooms of Lakeview Elementary have a patch of land and the school-zoned Clover Drive between them, the companies have said told Brewer that there is no clear separation between the school and freight trucks heading down the highway.

The noise wall, which would stretch between the two roadways from Nelson Road to Wheeler Road, is part of a proposed two- to four-lane widening of three miles of Highway 17 between Interstate 90 and the Grant County International Airport and is being funded by the most recent transportation package. That project is now on hold until Nov. 8, when voters will decide if they want to vote for or against the repeal of the 9.5-cent gas tax passed by the legislature earlier this year.

"If we don't have a good transportation infrastructure and eliminate the bottlenecks," Brewer said, "we'll lose projects, lose opportunities."

While the widening of Highway 17 is a gas tax-funded project that economic developers have said could bring industry to the Columbia Basin, it's not the only project that Brewer points to as one worthy of state and federal attention. The Port of Ephrata needs similar road and rail improvements to attract industry, improvements port manager Mike Wren is currently looking at finding funding for.

"We have no way in or out of the Port of Ephrata without going in and out of residential or school zones," he said.

The way the port is situated does not allow for direct highway access, and freight trucks would have to cross through such residential and school zones. Wren's port can't really compete to bring anyone with a truck-based business because of the drive through such a zone.

That's why Wren and his port have started to work with the Washington State Department of Transportation and the City of Ephrata to figure out a way for improvements to a road that could act as the port's main industrial road to find a way to Highway 282. If that road were to go through at the corner of Road A and Highway 282, Wren said it would open up 200 acres of ground for industrial development.

"I think for us really to compete with industrial development, we're going to have to have it," Wren said.

But roads aren't the only way into the port, where Wren would like to see improvements on a 1.5-mile rail spur first built in the 1940s.

The Port of Moses Lake is another industrial park with railroad improvements on the horizon. A study on what railroad improvements at the port would cost is expected to come out this winter. Port industrial manager Albert Anderson sees the railroad as infrastructure, and that infrastructure does take time. And Anderson said everyone has a different idea of how to take a look at economic development.

"Everybody has a little different attitude and different approach," Anderson said, "there's no single way to do something."

Rep. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, feels important projects like Highway 17 can be funded with existing gas tax revenue. Holmquist has twice voted against gas taxes since joining the legislature, and said many of her constituents feel those funds are not being spent wisely in all places.

Holmquist points to her support and securing of funding for projects like the Port of Ephrata and the Quincy Intermodel and improvements as needs, and said her support of streamlining state regulations should also be a priority for economic development.

Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Moses Lake, feels that those improvements along Highway 17 from I-90 to the Port of Moses Lake are needed through gas tax funds, and that is why she continues to defend her "yes" vote on the most recent funding package.

Transportation isn't the number one reason a person or company would consider a switch to Grant County, but when it does become an issue, Brewer said four-lane roads do make a difference. And he said the majority of transportation needs are those by truck. He said that for the agriculture-based economy, the infrastructure is important for farmers and their commodities.

"It's all got to go somewhere else," Brewer said of agricultural products. "It's all got to go to the marketplace eventually."

Anderson said in general the county does well with economic development; the problem comes with trying to settle with one individual company and oftentimes Moses Lake is competing with locations not just in the state, but around the world. Improvements like those on Highway 17 will greatly improve the port's industrial area, and Anderson said the port should have that infrastructure as a way to attract companies.

But for a final decision, Anderson said a company usually makes their relocation decision on a more personal level.

"Typically, where they end up going is a place where they can have the best comfort level and less risk from one site to another." Anderson said, "and we've been pretty successful here."