Big Endicott area projects wrapping up for winter

The Northwest Grain Growers and the Washington State Department of Transportation are working on projects in Endicott.

NWGG is building new grain elevators that include seven new shipping tanks and a half-million-bushel tank. The addition will bring the total storage on site to more than three million bushels.

A 110 car shuttle loader will transport the white wheat, dark northern spring wheat and hard red winter wheat that the elevators will hold from Endicott to the coast.

To keep up with the traffic, WSDOT and the railroad are putting in a mile-long ladder track which is designed to be able to break up the cars into smaller sections.

The contractor, RailWorks Track Systems from their eastern Washington branch in Airway Heights, worked over the weekend to finish the track this week in time for the holidays.

The state is covering $1 million of the $1.7 million project. Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad is covering $400,000, leaving the remaining cost to be paid by NWGG.

They hope to be operational by the first part of February.

Fiber to the home is being taken to Endicott by Pioneer Telephone. The contractor, Skyview Construction from Post Falls, Idaho, which also did St. John's fiber optics, finished laying down the line in the last home in Endicott Nov. 15. Connecting the fiber to the electronics at the individual homes will begin next spring or summer.

Pioneer Telephone is finishing up their second year of running fiber to Dusty, Endicott, Hay, Hooper, LaCrosse and Riparia.

So far they have done 75 miles and are ahead of schedule. The project costs $28,000 per mile, or $13 per foot if they have to saw rock.

The line through Endicott will continue out towards Diamond and Texas Lake going through Winona as well. Pioneer Telephone General Manager Dallas Filan calculates about 160 miles are needed to connect homes in the communities to fiber.

The Veteran's Tribute that is being put up by the Community Club in Endicott's Multiflora Park has been put on hold for the winter season after the tribute area was cleared of trees and excavated.

In the meantime, the park will be decorated for Christmas. The lights will be turned on for the first time Dec. 1 when Santa rolls into town on a fire engine. Cookies and hot chocolate will be provided as Santa settles in.

The plan is for the evening to end with fireworks.

Laura Jones, the Endicott city clerk, noted the town "has some great groups to do things and wonderful volunteers."

More projects are expected to start up in the spring, but in the meantime Endicott offers dinners almost every Wednesday of the month with free soup dinners on the first and third Wednesdays at the Trinity Lutheran Church.

The second and fourth Wednesdays Jenny Meyer serves dinner at the Endicott Food Center.

Endicott Bible Church is planning a free Thanksgiving dinner for anyone in town with no plans to go elsewhere.