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CapitalPress.com
November 11, 2016
Washington
Farmworker housing schedule slips
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
MATTAWA, Wash. —
It’s behind schedule, but the
Washington Growers League
still plans to open 144 beds
of housing for seasonal farm-
workers next year in Mattawa.
Last Dec. 3, the state
Department of Commerce
awarded the league a $3 mil-
lion grant to build the hous-
ing. It initially hoped to break
ground early in 2016 and pos-
sibly be ready for occupancy
this fall.
The time table has been
pushed back several times
and now groundbreaking is
pegged for December with
occupancy in mid-summer of
2017.
“We had a lot of negotia-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
The Washington Growers League’s 270-bed seasonal farmworker
housing south of Wenatchee opened in 2010 and is full in the sum-
mers. The league plans to open more housing in Mattawa next year.
tions with the city of Matta-
wa and development process
that slowed things down. It’s
a function of the scope of de-
velopment likely to occur in
Mattawa,” said Mike Gem-
pler, executive director of the
league in Yakima.
More than one developer
is looking at building general
and farmworker housing in
the city, and that caused the
city to re-examine its infra-
structure needs, he said.
The league’s project is
on 10 acres in the southwest
quadrant of the intersection
of Highway 243 and Road 24
Southwest. It is Port of Matta-
wa property within city limits.
“There’s water, sewer,
electrical and fiber optic so
the port is a good place to de-
velop,” Gempler said.
The league opened a new
$6 million, 200-bed migrant
farmworker housing facility,
Brender Creek, in Cashmere
in May 2015 with private and
state funding.
It also operates the 270-
bed Sage Bluff facility near
Malaga, south of Wenatchee,
that it built in 2010.
On Sept. 15, the league
completed a second step in ap-
plying for another $3 million
Department of Commerce
grant for a second phase in
Mattawa for an additional 168
beds.
Wafla, formerly the Wash-
ington Farm Labor Associa-
tion in Olympia, applied for
$3 million to build 166 beds
of seasonal farmworker hous-
ing in the city of Okanogan.
The Commerce Department
announces grant awards in
December. There’s $6 million
in the fund per biennium so
both could be granted.
Wafla has a purchase
agreement on 20 acres along
the Okanogan River in the
north end of town east of
WDFW proposes buying more private land
No commercial
logging planned
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
plans to buy timberlands total-
ing more than 1,600 acres in
Kittitas and Cowlitz counties.
If the acquisitions are ap-
proved by the Fish and Wild-
life Commission, WDFW
would manage the properties
to provide wildlife habitat and
public recreation, said Julie
Sandberg, WDFW real estate
services section manager.
The department may log
some trees for forest health
and to reduce fire danger, but
wouldn’t conduct commercial
timber harvests, she said.
WDFW staff members
were scheduled to recom-
mend the land buys Friday at
the commission’s meeting in
Olympia.
Caso’s Country Foods, said
Dan Fazio, Wafla director and
CEO. The agreement is con-
tingent on the grant and Wafla
hopes to complete the project
next year, he said. A second
phase is possible in the future,
he said.
Meanwhile, the league also
is still pursuing a privately fi-
nanced housing model and
hopes to present it to growers
soon. In the past, Gempler has
said the model he had in mind
is for growers to invest in con-
struction and own a right to
rent a certain number of beds.
He’s called it “sort of a time-
share model.”
Grower investments and
league bank loans would pay
for development and bed rent
would pay operational costs,
he has said.
WATER
Odessa
Subarea
seeks
more
funding
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Courtesy of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to buy 705 acres of timberland in Kittitas County. WDFW also plans to buy timber-
land in Cowlitz County, adding to the department’s million-acre portfolio.
If the commission agrees,
WDFW will buy 705 acres
south of Cle Elum in Kittitas
County from the Nature Con-
servancy for $811,000.
The conservation group
bought the land from the Plum
Creek Timber Co. in 2014 as
part of a $49 million, 47,921-
acre deal.
Weyerhaeuser Co. bought
Plum Creek in 2015.
WDFW’s purchase would
be part of a larger plan to ac-
quire forest land on the east
slopes of the central Cascade
Mountains and the upper Yaki-
ma River basin.
The commission also will
consider buying 975 acres
along the Kalama River in
eastern Cowlitz County for
$2.1 million from Merrill Lake
Properties LLC, a timber com-
pany. WDFW last year bought
property in the area from the
company.
WDFW owns or manages
approximately 1 million acres.
Both purchases would be
funded by the state’s capital
budget.
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46-4/#4N
MOSES LAKE, Wash.
— Lawmakers and other of-
ficials say they’ll consider
all funding sources to reduce
the cost of bringing Columbia
River water to Odessa Subar-
ea farms.
The sentiment was ex-
pressed several times during
the Columbia Basin Develop-
ment League’s annual meet-
ing last week.
Farmers in the Odessa Sub-
area want to replace shrinking
groundwater supplies with
surface water from the federal
Columbia Basin Project. The
project now serves 671,000
acres of the 1,029,000 acres
originally authorized by Con-
gress in the 1930s.
The state Department of
Ecology, U.S. Bureau of Rec-
lamation and East Colum-
bia Basin Irrigation District
are working to bring project
water to 87,700 more acres.
Construction of projects to
expand the existing system
are in varying stages of devel-
opment.
The irrigation district
capped the estimated annual
cost to landowners at $253 per
acre for 30 years. The league
hopes to reduce the cost to
$200 per acre.
The share that would be
paid by landowners “is still
really too high,” said Mike
Schwisow, league director of
governmental relations.
Those seeking the funds
have to be “innovative, per-
sistent and turn over ev-
ery rock that we can find,”
Schwisow said.
The federal government
has contributed $58 million
and the state has contributed
$75 million to the expansion.
The league is seeking $20
million in federal funding.
Ecology’s Office of the
Columbia River will request
$15 million in the state’s
2017-2019 capital budget,
said director Tom Tebb.
“We’ll see,” said state Sen.
Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake,
during her presentation. “I’m
hoping we can” provide fund-
ing.
But farmers and the league
face competition for funding
and legislators face budget
pressures and debt limits, she
warned.
Keynote speaker Gary
Chandler, vice president of
government affairs for the
Association of Washington
Business, credited local leg-
islators with trying to find
every dollar they can in tough
circumstances. He told league
members to keep pushing.
“If we lose the momentum
for whatever reason ... I’m
afraid it won’t come back for
a while,” he said.