Small Business Rep Explains Services at Port Meeting

DAYTON— At last week’s meeting of the Port of Columbia Commissioners, the director of the regional Small Business Development Center in Walla Walla spoke about work he does with potential and established businesses.

Joe Jacobs is a Certified Business Advisor and Accredited Business Planning Advisor, and he is part of a statewide network of organizations helping people to start and expand businesses. He also helps companies get ready to sell, he told the commissioners.

Since 2012, Jacobs said he has been able to help clients access over $11 million in capital infusion, with 211 new jobs created and 56 businesses created.

In Columbia County, Jacobs said that he, and people in his talent pool, have been helping a majority of clients at the Blue Mountain Station, and elsewhere, get started.

Baby boomer business owners are getting older and want to sell their businesses, but are having a hard time doing so because potential buyers have lost a large amount of their net worth during the recent recession, Jacobs said.

“Thirty-five thousand dollars of net worth per person has been lost during the recession,” he said.

Jacobs said that 65 to 70 percent of all businesses will be transitioning over in the next two to three years. Keeping businesses here is functionally important, he added.

“If a business closes in Dayton, wealth creation leaves and the economic engine leaves,” Jacobs said. “It is functionally important to keep businesses here.”

Brad McMasters, the Port’s Economic Development Coordinator, agreed. He said that if businesses are thinking of selling, to contact Port officials for help.

“The client has to make the initiation,” McMasters said. “Now that we have Joe as a resource we can begin that process.”

Jacobs and McMasters agreed that business owners should begin the process two years ahead of when they would like to sell. “Three years is better,” said Jacobs.

Port Manager Jennie Dickinson said the SBDC operated for several years in Walla Walla, but the program was cut due to budget constraints. Area partners were asked to help WSU reinstate the office, she said.

Jacobs said funding for the SBDC is through the Small Business Administration, and matching funds are required.

All of the work performed by the Small Business Development Center is a result of contributions of eleven stakeholders, Jacobs said.

Jacobs thanked the Port commissioners on behalf of his clients for their $1,750 annual contribution to the SBDC.

Also during the meeting, Port officials were asked to consider a request by Mitch Payne of Northwest Grain Growers for NWGG to acquire a small portion of Port-owned property for possible expansion. The property runs parallel to the Seneca Foods plant, and includes an old rail spur line.

“We are analyzing potential future needs of the seed plant in Dayton,” Payne told the commissioners. “The most advantageous location is on the northeast side of the seed plant, in line with the bins we erected in 2011.

“With our current footprint, we are limited in future expansion. We can’t consider any, without acquiring the additional adjoining property,” Payne added.

Dickinson said that the rail operator’s commercial director has said that the spur line could be shifted away from the building, and wrap back around to attach to the main line. Or loading could be done on just the main line.

The rail operator’s representative told the Port that he will do whatever is needed to accommodate the request made by Payne on behalf of the NWGG, Dickinson said.

Seneca Foods, Inc would also like to purchase Port-owned land, Dickinson said.

Seneca would like to purchase 8,800 square feet of property adjacent to the new Seneca seed storage building on Washington Ave., she said.

Commissioners established a value for that property of a minimum of $25,000 per acre, not to exceed $30,000 per acre, they said.

Dickinson said there are three options for the sale; by sealed bid, auction, or negotiated sale.

A public hearing to address the property sales has been scheduled for Jan. 11, at 10 a.m., in the Port boardroom.