LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
A7
County backs eff ort for jobs-training grant
Public-private
partnership
hopes to set up
training facility
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — In an
eff ort to provide local train-
ing for skilled workers, the
Wallowa County Board of
Commissioners lent its sup-
port Wednesday, April 6, to a
project being undertaken by
the Educational Service Dis-
trict in partnership with Vir-
idian Management to create
a vocational training center
in Enterprise.
The ESD and Viridian —
the latter part of the Enter-
prise-based Chrisman Group
— hope to enter into a pub-
lic-private partnership to
obtain a U.S. Department of
Agriculture Rural Develop-
ment Rural Innovation (for
a) Stronger Economy grant.
The grant, which could be
anywhere from $500,000 to
$2 million, would be to pur-
chase the former Chevrolet
dealership building in Enter-
prise, into which the ESD
would move. It now shares a
building with Viridian.
Patrick Patterson, presi-
dent of Viridian, emphasized
the public-private nature of
the project.
“The private entity would
be our group — the Chris-
man Group and the entities
that we have,” he said. “We
employ about 250 people.
The public group would be
the ESD, which would also
be the lead applicant of this
grant. Should we get this
grant, the ESD would be
the one who would admin-
ister the grant and take pos-
session of anything we pur-
chase with the grant.”
He emphasized that it’s
still uncertain if the partner-
ship will be able to get the
grant.
“We’re under the gun
right now,” he said. “We
came across this at the 11th
hour, but we felt like it
gets every single thing that
they’re trying to get with this
grant and it supports what
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Superintendent Karen Patton of the Wallowa County Educational Service District hands out documents to members of the
Wallowa County Board of Commissioners at their Wednesday, April 6, 2022, meeting. Patton and Patrick Patterson of Viridian
Management are proposing a joint project for which they are seeking the county’s backing. The commissioners are, from back,
John Hillock, Susan Roberts and Todd Nash.
ities. The ESD would have
more room, too, in the for-
mer Chevrolet dealership.
“I would just say that the
schools have been fully sup-
portive of this concept,” said
Karen Patton, superinten-
dent of the ESD. “We’re all
just very excited about the
possibilities.”
She added that the pub-
lic-private partnership would
be a lasting one.
“It would be a long-term
partnership,” she said.
eral source,” he said. “We
can also do in-kind dona-
tions, which means that if
someone uses their time, that
time counts as a donation.
So our funding use if we
did this would be to build or
support a community facility
and to provide worker train-
ing to assist them to provide
new jobs, create an existing
workforce and develop basic
skilled workers and improve
the opportunities to obtain
other high-wage jobs.”
He said the RISE grant
fi ts well with Wallowa
County.
“The RISE project must
serve a rural region small
enough to allow a close col-
laboration among partners
and Enterprise fi ts that pretty
well perfectly,” he said. “We
would also be serving other
rural areas. … There’s a fair
amount of state money that’s
going to be coming in for
jobs training. What that’s
really going to look like, we
don’t 100% know, so I’m not
going to go into that.”
The grant can be used to
pay for nearly all elements of
getting the innovation center
going, Patterson said.
“In the grant uses, you
can use it to construct or
purchase a building that’s
going to serve as an inno-
vation center but it has to
be located in a rural com-
munity,” he said. “You can
purchase equipment for sup-
port programs to be carried
out and, as I said before, the
lead applicant (the ESD) has
to be the primary person on
the grant.”
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Patrick Patterson, president of Viridian Management,
addresses the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners
during their Wednesday, April 6, 2022, meeting. He and
Superintendent Karen Patton of the Wallowa County
Educational Service District, left, are proposing a project for
which they are seeking the county’s backing.
everybody’s trying to fi gure
out: to get people trained,
to get people interested in
training. We just thought it
was a natural partnership to
involve the high schools and
get the kids into that.”
If the grant comes
through, Patterson said, Vir-
idian would purchase the
ESD’s share of the Wallowa
Valley Professional Build-
ing, giving Viridian room
to expand its training facil-
Matching funds
Patterson said they were
not asking the county for
money, but told the commis-
sioners that the grant must
be matched with 20% non-
federal funds.
“At least 20% of the funds
have to come from a nonfed-
April 17th 2022
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