SEWEDA may receive economic development funds

After being denied state funding for Startup 365, the Southeast Washington Economic Development Association (SEWEDA) may be receiving county .09 money to help keep the entity full-time.

“They were counting on that 365 money to start the new fiscal year, which started in July,” Dean Kinzer, county commissioner, told commissioners Art Swannack and Michael Largent in a workshop meeting Monday.

Startup Whitman launched here as a pilot program in 2015 under the state program of Startup 365 Washington. It was launched to support economic development, and launched in Asotin County at the same time. Asotin also was denied funding to continue its program.

Commissioner Kinzer indicated that he is not sure why it was not funded again.

“It was just basically a pilot program, and another entity got the contract,” he said. “The Department of Commerce and State of Washington are the ones who award it, and we applied like we were supposed to. Evidently our application didn’t come out on top, even though we scored pretty high on the grading.”

Kinzer said one possibility for the denial is that the program here did not have videos online of its programming.

Though the startup program was not re-funded here, Commissioner Kinzer said he would like to be able to see programming of a similar nature continue through SEWEDA, which was the contract holder.

The problem, however, is that the Startup 365 funding helped to pay the salary of Sarah McKnight, who administered the program. Without the funding, her position can only be funded at part-time through state and federal funding.

Commissioner Kinzer asked the other commissioners if it was possible to help offset the cost.

“I wanted to ask about directing some .09 money toward Sarah’s job,” said Kinzer. “She was at full-time, and because of this she’ll have to cut way back.”

Commissioner Swannack wanted to know how long McKnight’s position could be funded if the county did not provide the economic development funds, and Kinzer said it could be funded “for a month or two.”

“She’d have to cut back to part-time soon,” he said.

Commissioner Largent wanted to know how Kinzer felt about the work McKnight has been able to accomplish with SEWEDA and through the startup program.

“I gather that Dean supports this,” said Largent.

Kinzer said he has been impressed with McKnight’s work.

“She is able to contact more people and has more clients she is working with (when she is full-time),” he said. “Plus the fact that she has been able to work with more entities.”

Commissioner Largent agreed.

“I really have appreciated Sarah’s work, and I think she has the right personality for that,” he said.

The commissioners determined that SEWEDA would need $20,000 per year to continue funding SEWEDA. Of that, $15,000 would be for McKnight’s salary, and $5,000 would be for programs. They estimated that it would take $10,000 to fund the remainder of 2017.

If the commissioners are able to fund McKnight’s salary and the program through .09 funds, the work done will not be under Startup 365. That is now discontinued here.

“She’ll continue her programming, just not under the Startup Whitman label,” said Commissioner Kinzer. “It’s been a pretty successful program.”

As the commissioners were in a workshop meeting, there was no action taken. However, the commissioners plan to present a motion at a future Board of County Commissioners meeting.