Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
More than 60 gather for
survey talk, action plans
Under the high beams of the Dahmen Barn, more than 60 Colton-Uniontown citizens gathered Feb. 29 to hear the results of the community survey and come up with goals for moving their communities forward.
People in attendance included representatives of the school board, Colton town council, Uniontown Planning Commission and Uniontown Community Development Association.
The evening began with Paul Kimmel and Dale Miller of the UCDA telling of small towns from Minnesota to New York which established an identity or theme for their towns and built on it.
Kimmel, Avista’s Regional business manager, directed the people at the barn to separate into three groups for 15 minutes. One was to discuss marketing, another business development and the third community “polish.”
The three groups were given a directive to define objectives, come up with action items – both for quick success and long term – and meeting dates for the future.
Dick Watters of Southeast Washington Economic Development Association (SEWEDA) facilitated the Business Development group downstairs at the barn.
The group of about 20 talked about what businesses they would most like to attract to the area.
They discussed the viability of some kind of machine shop or contractor, which may bring in family-wage jobs, as opposed to retail.
One man suggested specialty crops, rather than hundreds of acres of one crop, could gain the communities visibility.
Watters told how Milton-Freewater has made a claim as the place for frogs, starting an annual frog festival.
Another citizen asked “why not take the stuff stores and just double down,” referring to the three antique stores in Uniontown. He suggested that is their established identity and to run with it.
Watters took it into consideration.
“If they’ve got five stuff stores to look at instead of three, by God they might have to buy lunch,” he said.
Upstairs in the marketing group, Nancy Jasper facilitated. The gathered men and women moved chairs into a circle
“What is it you think is the cool thing about these communities?” asked one.
“Who do you want to target, what demographic?” asked another.
“My targets would be young families, to get them to move here; professional people with kids,” said another.
On the third floor next to the piano, Kimmel led the group for community polish.
They talked of what they could do and who might help.
One citizen mentioned the help available from the two nearby colleges.
“If we design the project, we can plug in the fraternities and sororities,” said Kimmel.
“That’s good for manpower but not the community,” said one woman. “You want ownership. But it’s good to have 20-year-old muscle.”
Another woman in the group brought up the Colton Christmas lights of the past.
“Could that be brought back?” she asked.
Discussion followed.
“The people that put it on did it for 25 years, and there used to be other events too,” said one man. “But those people are 50, 60, 70 years old now.”
The groups gathered back in the main room to report their findings.
“That was a long 15 minutes, wasn’t it?” asked Kimmel.
Watters reported his group had two volunteers to carry the committee forward. They had a meeting date picked. He reviewed what they’d talked about and proposed a new policy for the school.
“No teachers are allowed to be hired unless they have five kids,” he said with a smile.
Jasper reported from the marketing group saying they have two targets: people to move to Colton-Uniontown, and weekenders. They talked about coming up with a branding effort for both towns, to possibly include a website.
Kimmel reported the community polish group decided to focus on a park cleanup first, including the restrooms on a recurring basis. They talked of having volunteers with trucks go around to pick up couches and other large items to haul them off.
The meeting concluded with a drawing for gift certificates from Avista and bottles of Merry Cellars wine.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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