Job Corps council hears economic updates

COLUMBIA BASIN - The good old days are now.

So said Columbia Basin Herald Publisher Harlan Beagley as he spoke before members of the Columbia Basin Job Corps Community Relations Council luncheon Thursday afternoon.

"Today is the good old days, and 10 years from now, you're going to be sitting around and saying, 'Gosh, I could have gotten a home on the lake for $250,000,'" Beagley told the audience. "People will go, 'You're crazy not to buy all of it.'"

Beagley compared the cost of today's housing and property to the price from 10 to 20 years ago, or beyond.

"That seems like a bargain price to us, and if we could go back in time we'd buy all that property up," he said. "But it's no different than fast forwarding 10, 20 years from now. Right now, they've just discovered us. These are bargain times. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars for a lot on the lake is a bargain. Now is the time to buy."

Representatives of cities and organizations around the region were in attendance to hear and provide updates about ongoing projects during the luncheon.

Job Corps Business Community Liaison Jennifer Thomas said the council meets regularly, either once a month or every two months.

"The whole point of meeting is to share with the community what is going on at Job Corps, how Job Corps is benefiting the community, the projects we're involved in and how we can help the community out," Thomas explained.

Thursday's luncheon placed an emphasis on the state of the Columbia Basin and Job Corps' role in preparing employees needed in the area in the next few years, Thomas said.

Peggy Hendren, Job Corps center director, provided several updates the program is working on, including an upcoming takeover of the center by the Forest Service from the Bureau of Reclamation pending legislative action.

"I think the point is to unify the federally run centers," she said, noting the Forest Service currently manages 19 Job Corps centers throughout the nation, followed by the bureau and then private contracting companies through the Department of Labor. "It's been a proven fact that those centers managed by a government agency, the students do very well and we have a better success rate."

Hendren and Thomas also spoke of a program allowing Job Corps students to explore firefighting as hobby and continued work on the Gen. James H. Doolittle Dream Park, amongst many other projects.

Beagley provided a summary of the area's agriculture, housing and commercial growth, new home construction, job growth, a review of the past year's major projects, transportation improvements and a forecast of the Grant County population, expected to grow 8 percent by 2012 and increase by 6,203 people.

"Those all add up to a tremendous amount of growth any city would love to have," he said. "If you read through this, this is like the wish list for a community much larger than ours."

Beagley recently accompanied a hunting and fishing show with several City of Moses Lake representatives, and noted there were people five-deep wanting to know more about the Grant County community.

"People are excited about us. We're no longer the little secret we once were," he said. "People are very interested in this area, so it's just going to get more and more busy, and we'll be more and more successful."

The area is poised to absorb a Fred Meyer location successfully, Beagley said, calling it the ideal business to come into the Columbia Basin next.

"Fred Meyer is kind of self-contained, but they do extremely well against Wal-Mart," he said. "It certainly is a factor. We've got three Wal-Marts right here all 20 miles apart from each other."

Beagley said the area experienced enough growth to support the three Wal-Mart locations, but Fred Meyer offers a different niche.

"We could have a Fred Meyer and it would do extremely well against the market here just by the expansion," he said. "A Fred Meyer is the gateway to other box stores, such as Target and even Macy's."

The next step is to convince the company the area is ready for them, he said.

Beagley noted the region began to develop a secondary job market, which helps to recruit employees into the area. Residents will see the retail market improve itself, he added.

"That's one thing we certainly need when we're attracting employees, is where is the wife, where is the husband going to shop?" he said. "We need those little tiny shops, we need the commercial shops, that helps us attract people."

Attracting people in to newly created jobs is a good problem, but still a problem, Beagley said.

"One thing we're working on as a community is getting the good word out," he said. "I hope you take the good word is and talk to people about how good the economy is here, what the forecast looks like, because it's certainly going to be different than if you turn on CNN and they talk about different areas that are depressed and home prices that are down."