[Vision2020] Vision2020] Economics of Business and new development

[Phil Nisbet]

Wow, where to start to try to deal with Wayne’s ideas here.

First, we have major problems in terms of transportation for Latah County.  
Two of our major rail lines have been turned into trails and the two 
remaining rail connections are not upgraded to handle current container 
requirements for most long distance shippers.  That means that most good 
made here will have to bear the cost of re-freighting..  Bovill still has 
its rail, but requires updating to 100 ton car capacity.  It’s doubtful that 
the last rail from Moscow can be updated.

How much assistance has been given to companies like Fabtech?  
http://www.fabtec.net

They employee people here in the area, are headquatered here, ship their 
manufactured products world wide and are considered some of the best in 
their business.  On the other hand, they keep a very low profile because 
they know that Wayne and others like him hate the idea that Moscow might 
have a role for manufacturing here on the Palouse.

In ten years Doug Church has grown his company from 4 to 40 employees and 
they make the living wage that keeps getting mentioned as something people 
want here in Moscow.  It’s a company whose success ought to be celebrated 
and a business model that ought to be replicated.  That’s especially true 
for something that has sales as far away as Asia from humble beginnings here 
on the Palouse.

Bennett is another example of a local firm that could use assistance to both 
improve its markets and its products.  Potlatch Corporation is in the same 
category, though mainly a Lewiston firm.  The Idaho Cedar Sales company in 
Troy is another example.  We have timber and finished wood products 
companies that give us value added to forest products and almost no focus on 
assisting them to grow and provide new jobs here.

The county has very limited space to host any sort of industrial 
development.  There is a lot of commercial zoning, but you can list the few 
places you can put any sort of industrial plant on one hand.  Rezoning in 
Latah County is the toughest of any county in the state.  Restrictions in 
the Groundwater Protection Zone (GWPZ) mean that almost no type of 
manufacturing can happen in the area around Moscow.  A facility like 
Schweitzer Engineering Labs has over in Pullman would be next to impossible 
to build here.  So how do you get research facilities that want to 
eventually build something, from computers to chips to medical devices, to 
even consider coming to a place where the best they can hope to do is the 
preliminary research?

Tourism?  We restrict that heavily as well.  Getting a resort set up in the 
back country here has huge zoning hoops to jump through.  We have no decent 
air facilites to get the tourists in and have to rely on people who might 
want to come in from either Spokane or Lewiston.  There are no major venders 
of art work, no artist colonies, no studios of note here in the Heart of the 
Arts, except maybe Wendt Pottery and Mike is down in Lewiston.  Where is the 
showroom here that encourages local artists?  Where is the encouragement for 
producers of local arts based materials, we have an abundance of stone, 
marble, clay, feldspar, quartz, gemstones and a lot more that is actually 
worked on by local artists who then sell their products elsewhere.

Mary Jane Farms and the Organic Growers have been seeking assistance for a 
long time as well.  Storhok worked pretty hard to try to see them get a 
kitchen facility to commercial development projects.  The Farmers Market is 
fine, but what about marketing the produce outside of the area?  Increasing 
farm value by getting farmers higher priced crops is one very good way to 
decrease the sprawl that eats farm lands around here.  It also encourages 
young people to look at farming.  The farm owner population is graying 
rapidly and there are darn few coming in behind them.

The LEDC has done its best.  The trouble is that any development they 
suggest gets rafts of organized opposition.  What Jeff is asking Wayne and 
not receiving an answer for, what will the opponents of industry in Moscow 
find as an acceptable living wage type of business?  Will they be willing to 
find ways to allow planning to encourage those types of businesses?  Or will 
be continue in the cycle of propose an idea and see it hammered down as 
something nobody wants because its just plain nasty to think of having one 
of ‘those’ here?

Phil Nisbet

_________________________________________________________________
Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee® 
Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963