New BMS Building In the Works

DAYTON—Allen Litzenberger, owner of 4-Point Construction in Walla Walla, is building a second building at the Blue Mountain Station, according to Port of Columbia manager Jennie Dickinson, at the port commissioner meeting, last week.

“It looks like it will be done quickly,” she told the board. Dickinson said a traffic study and SEPA study are not required, and that the building permit has already been approved.

Design meetings with the port planner, engineers from Anderson Perry, and an architect, are currently underway to determine the layout of the building, in order to take advantage of the railroad siding, Dickinson told the commissioners.

“We need to make sure there is enough room in back for semis,” she added.

Four 1500 sq. ft. spaces in the building will be available for lease, and there are already three interested parties, according to Brad McMasters, economic development coordinator for the Port. Three alcohol distilleries, two new ones, and one interested in expanding, have expressed interest in leasing space in there, said McMasters.

The materials for the new building are expected to arrive on Aug. 16, Dickinson said.

Litzenberger is also in talks with Murray Eggers of Pristine Produce in Walla Walla who wants to build two 28,000 sq. ft. buildings on Port-owned property for a food processing/co-packing facility, according to McMasters.

In the past Eggers has said he will initially employ roughly one hundred employees, all of whom will receive livable wages, and that one half of those will be full-time employees receiving livable wages and benefits.

Frontier Rail / Columbia /Walla Walla short line

Dickinson told the commissioners that the new rail operator, Frontier Rail, LLC, has been getting quotes for the labor on the railroad bridges, and for the rail siding at Blue Mountain Station.

Paul Didelius, the commercial director for Frontier Rail, LLC will present the commissioners with information about rehabilitating the Columbia/Walla Walla short line when they meet on Aug. 19.

There is to be a strategizing meeting, which will include lobbyist Chris Herman from the Washington Public Port Association, later in the fall, Dickinson said.

Innovatio at Cut Stock

On Aug. 9, members of the Community Economic Development Association toured the old Columbia Cut Stock Facility in Dayton, which is now the home of Innovatio, a wheat pulp research and development lab, said Dickinson.

Dickinson showed the commissioners a plate made out of wheat pulp fiber that she said was a prototype for the kinds of products that will be manufactured at the Dayton facility, as soon as the necessary equipment arrives from South Africa, in October.

“It was nice to see activity in Cut Stock,” Dickinson told the commissioners.