Canada calls Caroline Spira home
GCEDC manager assumes new position in Ladysmith Sept. 26
GRANT COUNTY — Caroline Spira's next move will bring her closer to family, but she's going to miss her neighbors.
The Grant County Economic Development Council manager of communications and research will leave her position Sept. 23.
"I've had like the best neighbors ever, and I'm going to miss them because they're family," she said.
The following Monday, Sept. 26, Spira will take on the newly created role of economic development coordinator for the town of Ladysmith, British Columbia. She has been with the GCEDC for three and a half years.
"I learned a tremendous amount while I was here, and I not only hope to apply a lot of it over there, but also continue learning and doing my part to make communities better," Spira said.
Spira said that she and her husband of eight years, Greg, are native Canadians, and the move is an opportunity to move "very very close" to family. Greg, a teacher at Chief Moses Middle School, will ultimately join his wife in Ladysmith.
The Spiras originally came to Moses Lake in order for Caroline to take the GCEDC position.
"It was a very good move," Caroline said, noting that she's been asked several times what she feels her biggest accomplishment was with the council. "If there was only one biggest accomplishment, I haven't done my job."
Spira said she was hired because the EDC used to be a two-person operation, with GCEDC executive director Terry Brewer and an assistant. She was hired to assist Brewer in business recruitment, and increase GCEDC marketing and communications work, she said.
"I came here doing all that, but then there was so much more that needed to be done," she said. "I think my biggest accomplishment was being able to take the EDC to another level, where we can do even more than we could before."
Spira said that she does not feel she's leaving anything incomplete.
"There will be announcements of new companies coming soon," she said. "They'll be after I leave, but I have no regrets. I'm happy, I know that the EDC has done a great job and will keep on doing a great job for the greater Grant County community."
Working on projects where she got to interact with people in the community was the part of the job Spira considers most fun, including the county's sister city relationship with Gunpo City in South Korea and the GCEDC Duel in the Desert.
"Whenever it was outside in the community, that's been the most fun," she said, calling her work in Grant County a personally enriching experience, even though her tenure was fairly brief. "I think we need to continue to offer more of that to people who have lived here their whole lives or to people that are moving here — community activities, new job opportunities, great schools and just great neighbors. We have so much to offer, we should just continue to open our arms out."
Brewer said the GCEDC will close its application process today, and he hopes to begin the screening and interviewing process next week.
"Caroline has been a great employee and she will be missed, I think not only by me but also by those (people) we work with," Brewer said. "She's a talented person with great ideas that have been helpful to us. I think we've moved forward in the years that she's been here. We've grown the capacity and output of this organization considerably compared to what we had before her assistance."
Brewer said the GCEDC will do its best to find a qualified replacement, and someone as anxious as Spira to learn economic development and work hard for the county's communities.
"Some time ago we had an EDC planning session where one EDC director talked about his motivation in being active in the EDC," Spira recalled. "He wants his young daughters to grow up, and stay here in Moses Lake — with good jobs and good opportunities. Dreams like that are what makes this work important. That's what gets me up in the morning and drives me through the day. Now someone else will have to take that baton and make that dream and others come true."