Serving Whitman County since 1877

Office hunt, DOE buffers, meat plant site on agenda

During the regular Monday morning workshop, Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack discussed a possible rental agreement with the Whitman Conservation District.

WCD is looking for new office space since the Natural Resources Conservation Service developed a new policy about charging rent to the conservation district that would amount to $25,000 annually. The conservation district board said that the district can’t afford the rent and have elected to move its office by mid-summer. One of the possible office spaces the district is investigating is sharing space with the WSU Extension Office in the county’s Public Service Building.

Swannack said he talked to county building maintenance and internet managers who said that the conservation district cannot share county telephone and internet systems.

“There hasn’t been much communication with them, but I had a conversation with the conservation district’s president,” Swannack said. He added he wasn’t hopeful about renting to the conservation district, but someone would investigate about how much rent the county would charge if the district moved into the county’s building.

Swannack also reported about a couple of meetings he attended while he was in Washington, D.C.

At a Natural Resources Conservation Service meeting, NRCS staff members reported the agency does not plan to fund stream buffers for the Department of Ecology if DOE sticks with a strict one-size-fits all mandate of 70 feet along landowner streams.

Swannack also said that USDA is considering both Washington and Idaho as a location for a USDA meat processing inspection plant. He said USDA is requesting money for a study on siting the plant.

During the commissioners’ meeting later that morning, Chris LaPaglia of the Greater Palouse Meat Producers told the board that his group has been working on the project for more than a year.

“We’ve figured out that people want it,” LaPaglia said.

He said they already have matching funds for a grant that would pay for the study, but he asked for support from the commissioners.

“We don’t have any money to commit to that, but I have no problem supporting it,” Swannack said.

“There’s no question that we need a USDA inspection plant,” Commissioner Dean Kinzer said.

Swannack recommended the board write a letter of support for the study.

Kinzer also reported during the workshop on the Palouse Knowledge Corridor’s boot camp that’s scheduled in July.

“They need $160,000 and they have $30,000,” Kinzer said. “I think they pulled the trigger too fast. I hope they pull it off, but it’s going to be a challenge.”

 

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