Sonico employee suspects 'ulterior motive'

As a current Sonico employee, I am left wondering if there are ulterior motive behind the Port's decision to evict Sonico from Building 408. The structural integrity problems that led to the eviction notice have been known to the Port since the 1990s, but have only recently become a "public safety issue" although the integrity remains unchanged.

With the influx of new industry into the area, specifically into Port owned properties, it seems to me and I am sure to other's in the community, that the real issue isn't "public safety", but more likely the desire to have more space to lease to these new prospects. Making the Port the hero for bringing new business and adding jobs to the community. How many of these new businesses have actually hired people from the Moses Lake area and how many of these people are actually buying/renting properties here, and contributing to our communities' economic growth? Recently ATS and AeroTec have signed lease agreements with the Port and there is a proposal suggesting Grant County International Airport as one of six FAA mandated drone test sites. I'm curious as to what else in the works.

Sonico attempted to rent the JAL hangar when it was vacant, without the improvements that the Port had to put in place for another tenant, but the offers weren't even entertained by the Port. Why didn't the Port take a proactive approach, lease an empty and therefore unprofitable building (the JAL hangar) to Sonico on a temporary basis and use this time to fix the structural integrity issues of Building 408 before they became a "public safety issue", while still keeping a 30 year tenant?

Economic growth is a good thing for our community, but not at the expense of alienating current businesses and those businesses' employees.

Annette Scanlan

Moses Lake