Forum focuses on employee recruitment

New commissioners address PUD future

COLUMBIA BASIN — Dean Martinez's friends have advised: to lure employees to the area, there should be malls built so their spouses want to make the move.

So shared the REC Silicon director of administration with a grin during a quarterly economic forum Wednesday afternoon, held in the Hardin Community Room at Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building.

Martinez's presentation touched upon the difficulty his company and others are having in recruiting an educated workforce into town. The problem's only going to be exacerbated as more in-the-works and future projects move into the area, Martinez said.

Key positions the company seeks include process and chemical operators, technicians and engineers.

"We've been looking all over the country to find talent," Martinez said. "We're actually starting to look all over the world."

He wondered if local industry and other entities could partner up to bring talent into Moses Lake.

Also at the forum, newly elected Grant County Public Utilities District commissioners Bob Bernd and Terry Brewer discussed the future of the district, and talked about where they would like to see it go.

Bernd said the district's staff has been planning for growth but without much direction from the commission in the past.

"Because of the fractured relationships and their hang-up with minutia, the commission has not gotten together for an extended planning session in four years," Bernd told the forum members.

A session is scheduled to take place in several weeks.

"There appears to be a new sense of cooperation on the commission," Bernd continued.

Commissioners won't always agree, he added, but they have all pledged to work together in an atmosphere of respect.

"Where would I stand on economic development?" Brewer asked with a smile.

The longtime Grant County Economic Development Council executive director recalled when he was first interviewed for the position, he was asked about the importance of the relationship between the council and the district for the future.

"I said, 'It's number one,'" Brewer recalled. "The relationship between the economic development council and the power company is premier, because you're looking at industrial activity that requires heavy infrastructure, the capacity to deliver power over that infrastructure, on and on and on. It's ever so important."

Brewer provided updates on several council projects, including a decision by the Northwest Washington Company to relocate their facility to Moses Lake for steel fabrication and distribution, and interest from a Vancouver, British Columbia-based architectural window manufacturing company. Both companies, with facilities at 50,000 square-feet and 30,000 square-feet respectively, anticipate bringing in 20 jobs and increasing to 40 jobs.

People constantly ask Brewer about retail stores like Target, Costco and Fred Meyer, he said, and the community might see something in 2008 or 2009, if not sooner. Conversations with such companies in the past showed the area was near the threshold of their necessary requirements, but not quite ready yet.

"They just needed to see more — more income, more population, they all had different criteria," Brewer said.

With the county growing and trends indicating further growth, he sees the trend continuing over the next five to 10 years.

"That will drive more commercial development, and I think the bulk of it would be in or around Moses Lake," he said.

Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey was pleased with the turnout, more than 30 people and the largest attendance in the history of the forums since their inception 15 months ago.

"I think each of our major groups was represented today," he said. "To look at the problem REC has with regard to filling recruitment needs and employment issues, that's something we can bring before this body because these are the leaders of our community."

Covey challenged the audience to think of ways to solve the problem.

When the forums first began, Covey said he was disappointed when the PUD took a position of neutrality toward growth.

"I just couldn't see that; they're providing power and infrastructure to the growth of the area, so how they could do that was beyond me," Covey said. "To listen to the new commissioners and the executive manager talk now and how they feel they can be supportive of economic growth in the area, it's wonderful."

The quarterly forums continue with another meeting in April. Covey expects the recruitment issue to be a topic again, and said he already has other issues in mind to bring forward.