Area leaders get rail, air updates at forum

Group hopes to present unified front for railroad progress

MOSES LAKE - Leaders from around the Columbia Basin got updates on two movements going on by land and by air last week.

Roughly 30 people were in attendance at the Greater Moses Lake Economic Development Forum Wednesday afternoon at Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building. The meetings gather on a quarterly basis and are led by Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey.

Covey said he was pleased with the turnout at the meeting Wednesday.

"It was especially nice to see representation from Soap Lake and the Port of Warden in attendance," he said.

Soap Lake Mayor Wayne Hovde and Port of Warden Commissioner Bob Whitaker were at the meeting.

Attendees received updates from Columbia Basin Railroad General Manager Tim Marshall on the railroad's plans to develop a rail line through the city to tie industrial sites on Wheeler Road to sites around the Grant County International Airport.

"We have a limited window of opportunity to locate a new direct rail route from Wheeler to the Grant County airport," Marshall said. "The longer we wait, the more likely that a major company will locate at the airport that would require significant rail service."

If that happens, he said, the railroad would have to upgrade the line currently running through downtown Moses Lake.

"I don't think anybody really wants that," he said.

The group discussed the need to present a united front in garnering funding for the project.

"There has been some opposition and this was apparent after (the state Department of Transportation) held their community meetings here this past summer," Covey said. "We are hopeful we can produce a united front for the rail project with the least amount of opposition locally, because in order to get funding for the project, it's very important we go in with a unified effort."

The group also received an update from Port of Moses Lake Executive Manager Craig Baldwin, Grant County Economic Development Council Executive Director Terry Brewer, Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Debbie Doran-Martinez and chamber President Mark Fancher.

The quartet recently attended a presentation in the Redmond area where they learned about a possible way to restore commercial air service to Grant County International Airport.

Baldwin said the Columbia Basin's "catchman" area is determined by the number of people who flew from about 96,000 total residents.

By looking at Zip codes, Baldwin explained, the number of people who actually purchased airline tickets and flew from one destination to another is compared to the total residents.

About 114,000 seats were purchased in the local catchman area.

"We actually had more people fly in our catchman area and that's a good thing," Baldwin said.

The numbers do not include people from outside the catchman area who purchased tickets and flew into Moses Lake.

"That tells the air carrier there is significant growth in Moses Lake and the ability to service and maintain air service here, because we have the passenger numbers," Baldwin said.

Service to Seattle is a community priority, Baldwin told the group, but the group would gather information about destinations needed. Following Seattle, the most popular destinations were Phoenix, Ariz.; Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The port is asking for a carrier to come in with a minimum of three flights per day, in order to cater to early morning business people and the mid-morning pleasure travelers, he said.

Part of what the Redmond community representatives did in establishing eastbound service was establishment of a "travel bank," the group told the audience, in which area businesses make a financial pledge to use the air service as part of an enticement to show there is support to bring a carrier into the area.

Once a carrier is established in the area, the businesses would put up the money and receive a pre-paid credit card with the amount of their pledge, which would then be used for flights.

"The contract says if you haven't used the money in 12 months, you lose it," Baldwin explained.

Fancher said the area has an advantage when approaching air carriers about local business needs for air service. In Redmond, the people involved had to explain to carriers who local businesses were and how long they had been in the area, he noted.

"When we rattle off the names of the companies that we have in this county, the country knows who they are," he said. "They know Microsoft's here, they know Yahoo! is here, that Ask.com is here, REC Silicon."

The forum voted unanimously to move forward as a community and support efforts to create the travel bank in the Columbia Basin area.