Beckett awarded Grain Train study

Gazette intern reporter

Port of Whitman commissioners May 19 selected the Beckett Group out of Gig Harbor to study the Washington State Grain Train program. Beckett, along with Palouse Partners, Rail Associates and the Tangent Group, submitted the proposals Thursday, May 5, and Friday, May 6.

Submissions were reviewed by a committee consisting of representatives of the Port of Whitman, Port of Walla Walla, Port of Moses Lake, WSDOT and the Freight Rail Office. After each submission was reviewed, they were evaluated and scored independently by the members of the committee, although Port of Moses Lake never submitted their final score.

Additionally, a May 16 conference call was made to discuss and recommend one of the four groups to the Port of Whitman County. The Beckett Group was chosen in the end, and WSDOT will fund the study.

The Beckett Group is a consulting team of transportation, port, research, technology, security and logistics professionals, according to its website. For the Grain Train study, the Beckett Group will consist of a two person team, with Jeannie Beckett, principal of the Beckett Group, and Dick Hatterman, industry expert.

Beckett has 30 years of experience in port management, rail facilities agricultural transfer facilities and economic analysis, according to the Beckett Group's website. Hatterman has 30 years experience in management consulting in the agricultural business and grain chipping. The Beckett Group has been chosen to manage the Grain Train project, which calls for a long-term strategic plan for improvements in the future, according to Debbie Snell, properties and development manager for the Port.

The Grain Train program serves more than 2,500 cooperative members and farmers throughout the state and helps to carry thousands of tons of grain to deepwater ports along the Columbia River and Puget Sound to ships bound for Pacific Rim countries, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation website.

The Grain Train program began in 1994 with federal money resulting from a lawsuit, said Chris Herman, freight rail policy and program manager at the DOT.

The contractor will be hired to create a strategic plan, and the ports and DOT will use that to update the business plan for Grain Train, said Herman. He added it should be wrapped up by the end of the year or early next year.

The funding is provided by the WSDOT Grain Train program, and the study will begin in approximately three weeks.