Bragging rights

EPHRATA — Port of Ephrata Manager Mike Wren just wanted to brag.

It was the reason Wren held a ceremony Friday morning at the port district headquarters, to mark the opening of the new Airport Street S.E.

"I don't want to brag about the road," he said. "What I want to brag about are the partnerships that all of you in this room that had to come together to make that project a reality."

Noting he constantly hears about all the things in government which don't work, Wren singled out those groups and individuals who worked together on the project.

"From my perspective as a constituent, a taxpayer and a manager, I look at that project and all it took to make this happen," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's frankly the example of cooperation and efficiency across the line for Washington state government."

Wren listed the steps which led to the development of the road, from port commissioners to Grant County Public Works to the Grant County commissioners to the City of Ephrata to state legislators to Gov. Chris Gregoire's office and the crews which worked on the road.

Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, was one of several speakers during the ceremony.

"I was driving in here, looking at some of those pipes," she said, describing the large metal structures outside Katana Industries on the port district's property. "I can't imagine them coming through a school zone or a residential area, so without this being done, it would have been a safety hazard and total disruption of the community to try to run them through the residential area."

"In the big scheme, we're all players in a huge system the public has great expectations for," Grant County Commissioner LeRoy Allison said. "What it does is it moves people and it moves goods. This project dealt with safety of people, getting truck traffic out of school zones and congested areas in cities out to a state highway to move goods safely and economically."

Outside the Ephrata Airport, crews worked to build a new taxiway, expected to be completed in the second week of September. Runway work is expected to begin June 2008.

The new road is primarily to be used for industrial traffic, but is open to the public.

"I'm certainly excited for the people of Ephrata and the surrounding community because this truck traffic was getting dumped down into town and it went by schools and residential areas," Port of Ephrata commissioner Karen Moore said. "This way, we can protect the kids and keep the trucks on a quicker route straight out to the highway."

The new street opens up a whole new area for the port district to develop, Moore added, because the land had previously not been accessible.

Former port manager Barbara Deycous, who retired in 2005, wanted to come back to see the end to a project which began before she left.

"You always want to see something you've started come to the end," Deycous said. She noted Wren invited her. "There were a few things I wanted to see accomplished, and one of them happened to be this road. We got started on it, but I didn't get to see it come to the end before I left, and so it's just wonderful to come out here and see that."