Groups gather for economic conference

'Movers and shakers' approve vision

MOSES LAKE — Area leaders have a vision regarding the future of the economy, and now they have a vision statement.

Representatives from the City of Moses Lake, Grant County, the Port of Moses Lake, Grant County Economic Development Council, Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, Big Bend Economic Development Council and Grant County Public Utility District, among others, were on hand for the Greater Moses Lake Economic Development Conference Wednesday afternoon.

The conference, held for the second time, was called by Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey. A previous meeting was held Oct. 12, 2005.

"At times, we need to be made more accountable for our decisions and our decision making, and I feel that this group can establish that accountability within its ranks," Covey explained of the reasons for the conference, which may eventually be held on a quarterly basis.

At Wednesday's meeting, representatives returned to look over and discuss language in drafts of a vision statement to be signed by the groups in attendance at the meeting.

The statement reads, in essence, the undersigning organizations support the growth of the local and regional economy by retaining and expanding existing business, agriculture and industry.

Through cooperation, the groups will work to enhance and expand the economy, including marketing the area for business development, recreation and tourism; developing workforce training and education programs and constructing infrastructure necessary for a growing economy.

In going around the room to ask members if their respective groups or boards would approve of the vision statement, PUD General Manager Tim Culbertson informed the audience the PUD recently approved a new strategic plan, remaining neutral on growth within the document.

"The commission has a concern about overwithdrawing from the project if we have overaggressive growth in the county," Culbertson explained.

PUD industrial and energy services manager Lon Topaz said the neutral statement has been in the prior plans for a long time, and is not a new thing, but it still drew some concerned discussion from those in attendance at the meeting before Culbertson clarified the reasoning behind the statement, and said he believed the PUD Commission would not have a problem with the vision statement as presented.

"I think the commission as a group will approve supporting that statement," Culbertson said.

The meeting included discussion over which organizations would sign the vision statement, and it was ultimately decided those seven groups in attendance would be the undersigning, with other groups able to endorse and support it.

Covey said he was pleased to see the meeting remain focused in its objectives and goals.

"We realized that while we would like to include everybody in the community, in order to be functional, we can't," he said.

After approving the vision statement, the group set another meeting for Feb. 22, and Covey asked those in attendance to go over the language with their respective organizations, and to come back ready to sign it and make it official.

A roundtable discussion included representatives providing updates on their respective organizations.

"I think it's a very productive meeting, and I think this is the kind of meeting where you get the entities in the county that are concerned about economic growth," said Brian Meiners, who will assume the GCEDC presidency in February. "That needs to continue so that we're all singing from the same page."

"The things we need to look out for is the growth of the community, and today we had the movers and the shakers of our entire community each expressing their views on what this community should be," said Dean Kastanis, chairman of the chamber's response team.

Carol Loop was present as an interested member of the public. She felt the meeting covered a lot of issues and those involved did a good job remaining on track.

"I think it's well organized and focused," she said. "I really didn't know what to expect, but a lot of questions were answered, just on what's going on in the community."