Blue Mountain Station 101

DAYTON - It's a bird! It's a plane!

Nohellip;it's "the world's first destination eco-food processing park."

That's how Port of Columbia Manager Jennie Dickinson and consultants Dennis Miller and Gary White describe the project.

But what does that really mean?

The Kennewick men came up with the idea for the Blue Mountain Station in 2007, and they continue to attend national and organic food processing trade shows around the country trying to drum up enthusiasm among developers who might want to expand their businesses into Dayton.

Blue Mountain Station project leaders plan to break ground on phase one April 15. Plans have already been designed. Between now and this fall, contractors will install sewage and water lines, roads, parking and other infrastructure.

But many residents of Dayton are still confused. They have heard the buzz about the Port's Blue Mountain Station. They have seen the sign reading, "Future Home Of" on the corner of Wagon Road and Highway 12 just west of town, but they still don't quite "get it."

"Well, I'm not really sure, but I think it has something to do with taking local, organic produce and selling it," said Dayton mother of five Dawn White. "And maybe they're going to process it, but I'm not sure if that's going to be somewhere else."

In short, "I don't feel that it's really very clear," she said.

To help clear up any confusion on the eve of the port's grand groundbreaking event, the Times interviewed Dickinson, asking her to clear the record about just what this Blue Mountain Station might turn out to be.

Times: You have used the term "value-added agricultural products" to describe what might be produced at Blue Mountain Station. What does that mean?

Dickinson: Value-added means instead of just shipping the bulk commodity down the river in a barge as is, that you add value to that product before you ship it out by adding an additional process. For example you bag it, or you grind it into flour and you bag it, before you ship it. Or you grind it into flour and you made it into cinnamon rolls before you ship it. You are adding input costs, but you are creating a higher value to the end product.

Times: Can you give me an example?

Dickinson: Chukar Cherries is a really good example of a value-added business that is the type of business we would locate here. They have a 5,000 or 7,000-square-foot building in Prosser (Wash.). You drive down the street and you look at the front of the building and it looks like a gift shop, and you are attracted to the gift shop, and you go in and it's filled with different packages of items made from cherries grown locally. But in the back of the building, probably the largest part, there are maybe 30 employees working to process and package those cherries basically for wholesale. It's not all sold out of the retail market in the front. That's just a portion of it. That's just a way to add more profit to their bottom line.

Times: Does Chukar Cherries own the cherry trees?

Dickinson: No. They buy the cherries from local growers.

Times: So that's what happens with these commodities anyway. I mean, the cherries get sent somewhere and turned into something. But this way it's happening here? It's happening locally?

Dickinson: Yes, and on a smaller scale. In a fashion that hopefully gives it more value. For example we're not trying to recreate Seneca Cannery, doing a million cans of asparagus a year at a purchase point on a shelf that won't change. I remember Seneca telling me years ago, people will not pay more for a can of asparagus than a certain amount.

Times: What are the different types of products or raw materials that can be used in this area for this kind of value-added processing?

Dickinson: So, there's apples. Broetje Orchards (in Prescott) is the biggest organic apple grower in the Northwest. There could be apple chips, there could be apple cider, there could be apple juice. So we want to attract businesses that are interested in using products grown in the Northwest, adding value to them and selling them. It's got to be more Northwest. Because we don't have irrigation, there's a limit to what we can provide. But I also think there are opportunities to provide more, but that of course is up to the grower. We're just trying to create that demand. Another idea for product would be alcohol, a grain distiller, or malted barley. Another one brought up was garlic. The kind of wheat we do grow here makes flat breads and pastas. That would be an obvious opportunity. Like Bob's Red Mill, which was another inspirational business we looked out. This isn't just about wholesale marketing. It has that tourism element. It has that attractiveness element. If you go to Bob's Red Mill website, it's not just a square manufacturing box, it's a fun, red-barn looking place that you can tour. So, of course the meat of their business is the wholesale manufacturing being shipped to grocery stores, but they also have this whole experience about visiting the facility, which is what we want to create here. The main focus of their business would be the wholesale, though.

Times: Will businesses that locate here be held to providing tourism opportunities and a retail store front?

Dickinson: You know. I don't know if they have to because what we want to do is have a building, and this is something else that people don't understand, that would be port owned on site called the "product development market center" that would have a retail market on the front. So each individual business doesn't have to have their own retail market if they don't want to. We can centralize that. They sure can if they want to, but they don't have to. We would like all of them to participate in allowing tours, but with food processing a tour basically means you're standing behind a window looking down over the process. There will be expectations for how the buildings look and how they fit into the park, and that is something we're still working on. This is a giant project. It is just a step at a time.

To find out more, visit www.bluemountainstation.com or attend the groundbreaking ceremony on the future site of the project April 15 at 2 p.m. A reception will follow where you can meet with project leaders and ask more questions at the Harvest Christian Center across Wagon Road from the site. Dan Newhouse, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, will be on hand for the ceremony.