Editor’s note: This OpEd was written prior to the Clark County Council’s decision to re-apply the Columbia River Economic Development Council’s status as Clark County’s Associate Development Organization.
Let’s look at the key components of a strong economic development initiative. There’s available workforce; the availability to hire skilled and qualified workers into the jobs that will be created without the need to recruit them to the region. Next is a quality education system, ranging from K-16 to research centers and workforce development. Then there is the issue of infrastructure: a wide-ranging set of factors including power, communication and transportation. Add to these, available land, tax structure and cost of living, and now the economic development message begins to take hold.
When building an economic development system, no individual factor is more important than another. But to build a system without one of these components can be fatal. That brings us to the current issue confronting our own economic development portfolio.
Freight mobility is key to the economic vitality of any community. When metro areas begin to clog with traffic, employers look to move their plants to communities where getting the goods to and from market are less challenging. This is where communities like Clark County come into play, if we have done the planning to assure freight can move efficiently and without unnecessary delays.
As an organization designated to advance economic development efforts in Clark County, it is the Columbia River Economic Development Council’s (CREDC) responsibility to advocate for each the components that complete the economic portfolio, including transportation projects. That is just what Mike Bomar, president of the CREDC, did recently when he joined with other business organizations in signing a letter of support for the Mill Plain/I-5 Interchange project.
The project is seen as critical to our overall transportation system. It is a vital piece in getting raw materials to manufacturers at the Port of Vancouver, and to export products from the port to both domestic and foreign markets. Additionally, locally produced goods will be more efficiently transported via our interstate system.
The CREDC was careful to clarify its support of the Mill Plain/I-5 Interchange project as equal to the support of the other projects in the region agreed upon and sent to the legislature for funding. Why then is the county – the agency that appointed the CREDC as its economic development agent – threatening to withhold appointment as the ADO (Associate Development Organization)? Failure to appoint a designated agency would result in the loss of a $160,000 contract to “partner with the Department of Commerce and to serve as the primary partner in local economic development activities in their county.”
It is important to note that given the criteria for qualifying as an ADO agency, no other organization in the county would qualify for the contract with the Commerce Department.
The answer to the above question seems to center on the concern of the County Council Chair (David Madore) about the intent of the Mill Plain/I 5 Interchange. Regardless of the intent, which we are convinced is to assure strong efficient freight mobility, there must be another way to address the concern rather than to cut off the funding for the very agency committed to recruiting new businesses and keeping existing employers in our community.
