Half-Sun Travel Plaza plans a soft opening

MOSES LAKE — It doesn’t seem all that long ago when Confederated Tribes of the Colville elder Barb Aripa, a direct descendant to Chief Moses, blessed the site at the southwest corner of South Wanapum Drive and West Lakeshore Drive.

Now, the tribal-owned convenience store and gas station, on a 9.25-acre parcel of land, is expected to open on Feb. 13 with a soft opening and ribbon cutting. Confederated Tribes of the Colville plans a major event in May, but for now Colville Fuels Half-Sun Travel Plaza will refuel both automobiles and trucks, as well as people.

“We’re bringing in the San Francisco Sourdough franchise in there,” said Chief Operating Officer Nathan Moulton. “It’s a high-end sandwich shop. It’s a lot better bread, better ingredients, than the other sandwich shops. It’s just a better product. We’ll also have pizza.”

The Moses Lake travel plaza is the third and largest off-rez project for the Colville, whose ancestral lands stretched well up into Canada, down to Oregon and east to nearby Spokane. The project includes building a 11,000-square-foot-building with two different fueling locations, one for retail customers and one for commercial trucks.

The tribe is currently in the process of hiring an estimated 30 employees, including one general manager, two shift managers, about 20 cashiers and a variety of maintenance staff.

“This is our third and largest (off-rez) project to date,” Moulton said. “We opened a travel plaza in February down in Manson. We’re real excited about this one. We’ll have a soft opening in February and in May the grand opening with some drums and dancers. I’m actually trying to bring in some celebrities for that.”

Celebrations aside, the travel plaza a full-service destination for the trucking industry. It won’t have a mechanic on-site, but it will have scales. It will also have seven showers, washers and dryers, free Wi-Fi. They will also have two zero-gravity massage chairs. Half-Sun will also have a smoking deck with propane heaters, as well as indoor lounge.

“The tribe is very close to finalizing a liquor contract,” Moulton said. “So we will also be offering, alcohol. We’ll also be offering local beers. Everybody seems to like the Iron Horse beer out of Ellensburg, but I’ve heard a lot about the Moses Lake breweries and were anxious to talk to them.”

They also plan to have outdoor seating in the summertime to complement its indoor lounge and seating arrangement.

“All of the front canopies will be branded Chevron for the automobiles and the diesel canopy is branded Xtreme Diesel, which is a real good power source additive,” Moulton said.

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville hopes to educate travelers on the proud history of the heritage of its nation with black and white photographs and statues of important tribal leaders.

“We’re going to have a nine-foot statue of Chief Moses,” he said. “We’re going to have a monument with lights. We’re going to have the black and whites inside a panoramic of what life in the 1900s. There will be a lot of portraits of important people.”

Things are moving forward for the Colville Fuels and TERO partnership with a soft opening on Feb. 13. If you are interested in working at Colville Fuels Half-Sun Travel Plaza, applications can be accessed at: http://www.colvilletribes.com/employment_and_training_jobs. Click on ‘jobs’ then ‘human resources.’

Submit cover page, resume and application to Colville Fuels, Attn: Human Resources, P.O. Box 140, Nespelem, WA 99155, or e-mail to n.runningbear@ctecorp.org, or call 509-634-3208.