Ephrata balks at paying GCEDC

EPHRATA - Some Ephrata city councilmembers questioned the benefit of the Grant County Economic Development Council.

The council's president and executive director answered questions during a recent city council meeting.

The city's agreement to participate in the EDC is reviewed yearly. It normally donates about $7,000 to the organization, equaling $1 per resident.

"It seems the councils we've been to, the ports that we've been to, everybody wants to know what we've done for them," President Juliann Dodds said. "That's a great question."

When the council provides information to companies, they don't single out cities. Instead they provide information on sites meeting the company's needs, she said.

"We look at what the site selection committee is asking us for and then we address those and provide those opportunities to those people and they decide who is going to make it to the next round," she said.

New industries in the county benefit everyone, Dodds said, pointing to adding jobs, and decreases in some portions of people's property tax levies.

"When REC went online, my property tax bill, for the parts that it affects, went down $200," she said. "That's real savings to me."

She also mentioned the council's involvement with the new Grant County Trends Web site. The site contains statistical information about the county.

"As part of our budget, we are going to be paying the maintenance fee next year. We will be looking for partners to help us with that. It's a pretty significant bill," Dodds said.

The council also is assigning board members as liaisons to each city, after members suggested the council needed to improve its communications, she said.

Councilmember Heidi Schultheis questioned a statement in an EDC report, stating it helped bring Katana and Walmart to the city.

"Forgive me, because that really is reaching, because you all know that Walmart has been here a few years," Executive Director Terry Brewer said. "The Walmart property was city-owned property, but it wasn't zoned commercial."

Brewer continued, saying the EDC participated in planning commission hearings to change the zoning and worked with the developer.

Schultheis asked whether the group also lobbies businesses to come to an area, along with providing information to companies.

"A little bit of both really," Brewer said. "When you're dealing with a major corporation, or their project team, or their site selection consulting team, such as a large data center project, or the SGL/BMW project ... they don't want the fluff stuff, and if there is too much of that they won't even look through to get to the real stuff."

Brewer later said 75 percent of the council's time is spent responding to inquiries.

"Mr. Brewer, Ephrata hasn't landed anything since Katana. What is it that we need to be doing?" Councilmember Kathleen Allstot asked.

Brewer answered Ephrata doesn't have a lot of infrastructure or a large labor force to draw on, and most companies don't want to construct the items it may need.

"They've never been in that business of providing industrial capacity," he said.

Councilmember Bruce Reim said he is interested in the best use of taxpayer money, and the city seems to be spending money and not seeing much benefit.

"I look back, I see Katana in 2004 and we put in $1 per person that is our annual fee," he said. "We're over $40,000 into this, and we've asked our people that work for us just this year to cut back 15 percent just to make budget."

Reim knows businesses in other cities provide residual benefits to the city, but the councilmembers are still contributing taxpayers' money, he said, adding he wanted to know what the city could do to improve its position.

"The question that I'm getting around the community when we do talk about this is, 'What are we getting?'" he said. "I know you can't answer that ... What do we tell our people? What do we tell our employees that just cut back 15 percent?"

The EDC is trying to bring more business to Katana, Brewer said, adding the plant isn't operational at the moment.

"Last month, I met with some people on a wind tower project, pushing Katana's name and information in front of them and hoping that the project comes to fruition," he said. "You asked what could be done. Very often on the smaller scale projects that would fit in Ephrata or Coulee City or Royal City, where there are lower infrastructure demands, they very often require a building."

The smaller companies don't have money to construct a building, Brewer said, adding there aren't empty industrial buildings for the companies to move into.

Councilmember Ben Davis said the EDC is a valuable resource for the city to help draw business in. He pointed out the lack of private industry hurts the city's tax rates and the councilmembers can't expect city staff to try and seek out new business.

"We need somebody that is dedicated to doing it like the EDC," he said. "Now if four or five years go by and we don't land another one I don't think it will be for the lack of their effort in trying to find something for you."

Reim did agree it was a small price to pay for a good service.

Councilmember Heidi Schultheis pointed to the Grant County Trends Web site as a useful resource, but doesn't think the city should give the EDC the full amount, suggesting a smaller contribution.

"I think we have to keep in mind, the greatest bang for our buck," she said. "While I believe there is definitely great value to what the EDC does and I would like to support that in some small way ... I think it would be very beneficial for our taxpayers for having what little dollars we can afford for direct promotion of the Ephrata port."