Volunteers sought for 'Pullman 2040'

Francis Benjamin with the Pullman Chamber of Commerce met with the Port of Whitman County last Thursday to update the staff and the commissioner's on the Chamber's “Pullman 2040” project.

“We are about a year into this process,” Benjamin told those present. “A year into 23 years.”

The Pullman 2040 project is an economic visioning plan that will set goals for where the city wants to be in 2040.

“This is the first time Pullman has done a visioning of this style,” said Benjamin. “We're looking at where Pullman wants to be in 2040. What do we want the look and feel to be?”

To accomplish the goal setting, Benjamin said volunteers are currently being recruited for various task forces. The task forces were formed based off of community input. There are six task forces, which include the Community Identity Task Force, the Economic Development Task Force, Education Task Force, the Environment/Recreation Task Force, the Visual Appeal Task Force and the Wellness Task Force.

The Community Identity Task Force will seek to define a Pullman identity that fosters inclusiveness, diversity, safety, friendliness and generosity. The Economic Development Task Force will be tasked with looking at how to fulfill shopping, restaurant and entertainment desires of the community while keeping a “small-town feel” and offering “big city opportunities.”

The Education Task Force will look into maintaining high standards and support for educational opportunities, while outdoor and recreational opportunities will be explored by the Environment/Recreation Task Force.

The Visual Appeal Task Force will work on beautifying and cleaning up Pullman, as well as highlight historical assets and artistic creativity, and increased opportunities for healthy living will be sought by the Wellness Task Force.

“Pullman has not worked at economic development,” Benjamin said. “We have not been purposeful in the process.”

Benjamin explained that these task forces will help to identify opportunities for growth and help as Pullman continues to adapt its identity.

“It used to be that WSU was the identity of Pullman, but now SEL has more full-time employees than WSU,” said Benjamin. “We're transitioning from being a campus community to a campus community and industry community.”

Benjamin said that anyone can be involved in a task force, regardless of where they live.

“This Pullman 2040 is not confined to city limits,” he said. “What happens in Pullman has a dramatic effect on our entire county and entire region.”

Commissioner Tom Kammerzell said he agreed with this.

“Pullman has changed in my view,” he said. “We are the big dog, not the bad dog. Pullman is trying to reach out to the smaller communities.”

Benjamin said one of the biggest components of the visioning plan is figuring out traffic solutions. He noted the traffic is not like what can be found in bigger cities like Seattle, but it still is problem.

“For our town, people notice it,” he commented. “For us to do any of the work we want to do, we have to get it from a place where we're just trying to get the traffic through to we're trying to get the people there.”

One thing he noted as a solution for this is the future construction of bypasses around the city.

“The longterm solution is we need to get the bypasses in,” he said.

Benjamin also noted that many of the people who are in Pullman on a daily basis do not actually live there.

“Pullman is a commuter community,” he said. “Two-thirds of the people who work there don't actually live there, and then the students also create a transient piece. We realize that what happens in Pullman is going to have tremendous impact elsewhere.”

Volunteers are being recruited for the task forces now, and the task forces will work together through the end of June to develop recommended action plans specific to the areas of the task forces. From July to September, the steering committee will take the recommendations of the task forces and other community input and develop those into a Pullman 2040 visioning statement and action plan.

In October, a Pullman 2040 community meeting is planned to allow the public the opportunity to review the plan and identify the areas that need to be worked on during the following year. From there, the implementation process will begin.

For more information or to sign up for a task force, visit pullman2040.org.