Help Is On The Way

Every time a transport convoy with wind mill parts passes through Dayton, we can imagine some Columbia County residents might find the sight bittersweet.

The components - giant blades, nacelles, cones and tower sections - are on their way to Garfield County, where Puget Sound Energy is moving ahead with the first phase of its Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project: the construction of 149 windmills.

The building of the towers has been a benefit to the entire Touchet Valley as construction workers spend their money on gas, food and lodging in Pomeroy, Dayton, Waitsburg and Prescott this summer. Some even stay as far away as Walla Walla.

But the benefits are temporary. After the towers are built, things will quiet down again on the economic front.

Meanwhile, Columbia County's own phase of the Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project - the construction of as many as 351 turbines - is indefinitely on hold. This is no fault of PSE, which is at the mercy of consumer demand for this expansion and just as dependent on the health of the regional economy.

Without the addition of those kind of well-paying permanent maintenance jobs to sustain a new wind farm and without a general turnaround in the nation's commerce, the economy of Columbia County continues the struggle.

A recent follow-up presentation on the economy from the three economic development agencies here underscores this .

Unemployment in the county, which was under 6 percent in 2006, was at more than 11 percent last year. Retail sales per capita (based on the county's population of about 4,000) were $2,639 in 2009, compared to $4,802 in Walla Walla County and $3,013 in Garfield County.

But that doesn't mean local and regional agencies are sitting back waiting for things to get better. An important aspect of the presentation was to update residents on the activities of three entities to help stimulate job creation and retail sales.

We reported last week on the efforts of the Southeast Washington Economic Development Association, which is working with the Port of Walla Walla and Walla Walla Community College to try to get more small wind energy businesses to set up shop in a five-county area that includes Columbia County.

Officials from SEWEDA and the Port of Walla Walla will be in Anaheim, Calif., later this month to raise interest in the area's growing wind energy industry at a large expo for related businesses.

Last month, the Port of Columbia broke ground for the Blue Mountain Station, which is expected to bring a number of organic food processors together in a visitor-friendly business park on the edge of Dayton. It's impossible to predict how many jobs will be created as a result, but the addition of any new business locating in the area with deep agricultural roots will have that effect and generate an indirect benefit through purchases in the community.

The port is also expected to accommodate the expansion of Tucannon Meats, whose bigger facility could add as many as five jobs to the local economy.

Lastly, the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, heavily involved in almost many of the special events in town, is working on a new strategic marketing plan for tourism development, participates as a member of the new Touchet Valley Tourism Alliance and provides input (along with the Port of Columbia) to larger regional visitors signage efforts in the greater Walla Walla area.

Naturally, no agency can single-handedly turn around a county's economy. Larger forces, such as the price of gas affecting tourism, the price for wheat changing farmers' incomes and the fate of the regional economy play a much larger role in the ultimate outlook for jobs creation.

But the efforts and initiatives of SEWEDA, the Port of Columbia, the Chamber and their partners add up to an important contribution to the infrastructure and prospects of renewed growth.

We encourage them in their continued search for ways to retain, sustain and recruit businesses and jobs to a community that sorely needs them.