Rossi to headline GCEDC banquet

Meiners to assume presidency from Kincaid

MOSES LAKE — For speaking duties at its annual membership banquet, the Grant County Economic Development Council turned to someone with a successful unsuccess.

Dino Rossi, Republican candidate for Washington senator in 2004, will address council members at the banquet, held Feb. 16 in the ATEC Building at Big Bend Community College.

Jon Smith, director of communications and research at the GCEDC, stressed that the banquet is open to the public, and designed to announce new members to the council board of directors.

"It's a chance to meet with the business leaders in our community who are actively engaged in promoting more business growth within our community," Smith said of the banquet. "So if that's something you're interested in, you can network your ideas and things with these people, and also come and listen to Dino."

"We were looking for a dynamic speaker, and Dino is a man who had made a successful unsuccessful bid for the governorship of Washington," explained GCEDC secretary Bob Trask Jr. of Rossi. "A lot of us in the EDC had seen him at several different times, and felt he would be an appropriate, upbeat speaker."

Trask noted Rossi had been in the area during his campaign, and right after he was briefly elected as governor. A recount later named Rossi's Democratic rival, Chris Gregoire, the state's governor.

Rossi is also the author of the book, "Lessons in Leadership, Business, Politics and Life," and will share those lessons and his own stories with attendees at the banquet.

"It's too easy to have a dull banquet, so we wanted someone who was just upbeat, liked the state and believes in the economy, was not there to push party lines and was an entrepreneurial businessman," Trask said.

Brian Meiners will assume presidency of the council for the year from Ralph Kincaid at the banquet.

Over the past year, Meiners noted, the council began a more in-depth process of strategic planning to identify specific objectives it wants to complete, which is still under way. The hope is for the council's committees to be active in the objectives, all of which center around creating employment.

"The EDC is all about jobs, so we want to be effective at supporting and encouraging job retention and job growth within the county," Meiners said.

As a food processor — Meiners works as plant manager at Basic American Foods — one of his major interests is to see the council be a strong advocate of agricultural business, he added.

"Grant County is the number one ag county in the state, but we rank number 11 when it comes to processed food sales and employment, so over time we would like to see our ranking as a process and employment county for food products increase," Meiners said.

Meiners said a lot of interest was generated in the county for various reasons, including power, location and the commodities that the area can offer.

Transportation priorities will also be a focus for the year, including development of air, rail and roads to help provide infrastructure for business growth, he said.

"We want to be sure that as a county, we have a priority list of transportation projects in the various transportation areas so that we speak with one voice in the county," Meiners said. "I think the EDC is in a position to help bring the voices together and help prioritize the projects."

Kincaid said he believes the past year was the busiest ever in terms of potential projects for the council.

"The fact that we still have 12 or so live projects out of 40 some gives you an idea of how busy the year was," he said.

Kincaid believes the board was able to get more involved in the work of the GCEDC, and the strategic planning process will give the council more focus in its work. With limited budget and staff resources, he said, it is necessary to establish priorities during the strategic planning process and focus on the right things to do.

"As a result of all the EDC work in the past year, I think we will see some of the major projects come to fruition in the next 12 months," Kincaid said. "It should be an exciting time in Grant County in the next couple of years."