Six inducted into Ag Hall of Fame
Alice Parker, of Royal City, looks at her award for being inducted in the Ag Hall of Fame. Outgoing chamber president Michelle Price and chamber executive director Debbie Doran-Martinez are also pictured.
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce inducted six individuals in a newly created Ag Hall of Fame Saturday.
“We felt, as a board, the community wasn’t recognizing them,” said Debbie Doran-Martinez, the chamber’s executive director, during the organization’s annual banquet.
Inductees were:
• The late Allen Sircin, a Moses Lake area feedlot owner. Sircin and his wife Wilma were known for starting the first feedlot between Moses Lake and Warden in 1958. They named their business the A&W Feedlot.
In 1972, the feedlot was sold to Agri Beef and now operates as El Oro feedlot.
“Allen was the sort of man you hear about, but seldom actually encounter: an honest one,” stated his daughter, Vickie Heath. “His handshake was as good as anyone’s signed contract.”
Allen was also known for using potato by-products from processing plants to feed cattle.
His daughter Trudy, and her husband, Dick Watson, accepted the award Saturday night.
• The late Harry Masto, co-owner of Pronto Foods.
Masto and his wife, Masie, came to Moses Lake in 1952 and started farming onions and sugar beets upon the arrival of irrigation water.
He owned a produce warehouse called Harry Masto Produce and later opened Pronto Foods in Moses Lake with partner Paul Hirai.
“It is upon opening the company that he was able to become a philanthropist and give back to the community like he always hoped,” Doran-Martinez said. “His loved ones commented on how he always wanted to help other people and organizations.”
The Mastos donated to Moses Lake Lions Club, Samaritan Healthcare and Big Bend Community College, where the Masto Conference Center is dedicated in their name.
More than $500,000 was given to the college foundation by the Mastos.
• Kenneth Goodrich, a man known for pouring concrete irrigation ditches in the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project.
He is credited for the efficiency the ditches represent.
“Back when the project was first laid out, the irrigation ditches were just grooves in the dirt,” Doran-Martinez said. “The trouble with those was the dirt moved right along with the water. Planting grass on the banks went a little way in controlling the erosion, but it didn’t solve the whole problem.”
Lining the ditches with concrete was the answer.
Goodrich poured more than 285 miles of concrete from 1956 to 1989.
“It took a lot of years and a lot of concrete, but Kenneth’s contribution to irrigation in the Basin is still going strong today,” she commented.
• Alice Parker, former executive secretary of the Columbia Basin Development League (CBDL), a group working to complete the irrigation project.
Alice, her husband Ike and three children arrived in the Royal Slope from Colorado in 1965.
The family farmed and Alice later got involved as an organizer of Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE).
She held the leadership roles of state president and national president in WIFE during the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1992, she started working for the development league.
“During her time with the CBDL, Alice has fought tooth and nail for our farmers,” Doran-Martinez said. “During the moratorium years, when the state and federal government imposed a moratorium on new withdrawals from the Columbia River, Alice held the CBDL together: organizing meetings, building membership and being a beacon of hope until the moratorium was lifted in 2003.”
• Paul and Virginia “Ginny” Hirai.
After becoming business partners with Harry Masto in the company Pronto Foods, the couple came to Moses Lake in the 1960s. They raised potatoes through the partnership and had potato sheds in Moses Lake and Othello.
They grew about 5,000 acres of produce, such as wheat, beans, potatoes and onions.
Community service was important to the Hirais.
Paul participated in the Moses Lake Lions Club, Moses Lake Rotary and the World Service Community Project.
Paul and Ginny welcomes Japanese exchange students into the community for more than 30 years and “helped to increase relations between Japanese and U.S. culture,” Doran-Martinez said.
Paul was honored with the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the emperor of Japan.
The chamber also honored outgoing and incoming officers.
The board members are past president, Billy Brice, vice president of government and regional affairs, Mardine Brower, vice president of tourism and economic development, Rhonda Severance, finance committee, Shannon Rock and tourism and economic development, Danette Watkins.
New board members are Dean Mitchell, chief of the Moses Lake Police Department, Rita Bjork, Grant County PUD public information officer, Jerome Brotherton, managing director of Brotherton Seed Co., Sharon Palmerton, head of community affairs, with REC Silicon Group and Sam Russell, general manager with Porterhouse Steakhouse.
Kim Janke and Jason Clark are also new board members. They serve one-year appointments.
Janke is owner/agent with State Farm Insurance and Clark is area manager with BBSI.
Mike and Krista Hamilton, of Michael’s on the Lake, received the president’s award for their work in hosting Business After Hours and for assisting when someone was unable to host the event.
Debi Keyzer, of WorkSource Central Basin, was presented with the ambassador of the year award because of her excellent attendance record, enthusiasm and doing whatever was asked of her.
The chamber is accepting nominations for next year’s inductees into the Ag Hall of Fame from Jan. 1 through June 30.
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