'We've got the gold'

GRANT COUNTY — Following the best year in the Grant County Economic Development Council's history, council members learned about the events leading up to today.

Presenter Mick Qualls, owner of Qualls Ag Labs, compressed 100 years of history into a 45-minute presentation at the conclusion of the council's annual membership banquet. Nearly 200 members gathered for the event, held Wednesday evening at Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building.

Qualls took the audience through the origins of the Columbia Basin area, tracing the history from one of the harshest, driest regions in the United States to the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam and the utilization of irrigation in farming.

It was a historical journey which saw visits from six U.S. Presidents — Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy — over the course of the years.

Qualls postulated the nation has entered a second Dust Bowl and a third World War without knowing it, after detailing the impact the original Dust Bowl and the two World Wars had upon the region, but thought Grant County would be in good condition for the next "gold rush," which he anticipates to take place within 10 years.

"The next gold rush is for water, and you have never seen the likes," he said. "People get mad when they get hungry, but you wait until they run out of water … We've got the gold. We've got more water, and we're just wasting it. Ninety-five percent of all water in this state ends up out in the toxic waste dump called the ocean."

At his presentation's conclusion, Qualls showed a Dec. 12, 2006, drought monitor, with impacted areas mirroring those during the Great Depression.

Before Qualls took the stage, Brian Meiners turned over the council presidency to Robert Trask, Jr.

Meiners pointed to the area's water, land and sunlight as being the key to industries new and old in the county.

"All of these things are gifts," he said. "It helps us be hospitable, I think, when we have that sense of thankfulness, to those who are coming. All of us at one time or another, we came to the county and others welcomed us. We've got lots of people coming … So let's get ready to be a hospitable bunch, because we're a really great group of people and I'm excited to have more people join us here in Grant County."

Trask pointed to the council's need to expand its vision for economic development to assist county business partners in recruiting, training and retaining quality employees for quality jobs.

"Without growth and qualified business, we will have nothing, and we will have nothing to sell," he said. "For Grant County and its communities, qualified growth is good."

Trask said the council must strive to expand its assistance in helping the existing work force and its needs, while searching for and assisting new quality businesses.

"Ever so much more fun to be an economic development executive when things are going your way," council Executive Director Terry Brewer said during his 2007 economic outlook. "It's a lot better when Mattawa has a project, Warden has a project, Ephrata has a project and Quincy has a project, along with the projects we are used to having in Moses Lake. I think across the county, people are beginning to see there is real economic growth within the greater community of Grant County."

Brewer re-listed the projects announced in 2006, and mentioned a few new things, still confidential, he knows are coming.

"Those projects add up to more than $1.6 billion in new private sector investment," he said, to applause from the audience. "Those projects, at full development, add up to more than 750 direct jobs by those companies. As a result of those jobs, the greater Grant County community will see more than 2,000 additional jobs created over time.

"Believe me, we're going to see a lot more great jobs in Grant County," Brewer continued. "So if your youngsters, your grandchildren want to come back here to work, there's going to be a good place for them in the future, I believe."