The Port of Chehalis Commission discusses the potential grain storage facility and transload facility project Thursday morning in Chehalis.
The Port of Chehalis has plans to construct a Chehalis Valley Grain Facility, and just signed a letter of understanding with regional partners pursuing other agriculture projects in Thurston County.
“It is unfair to say it’s a largely feel-good exercise, but it’s a statement of goodwill and cooperation among all the different parties to work together on ag projects,” said Port of Chehalis Executive Director Randy Mueller.
The Port of Chehalis Commission authorized Mueller to sign the letter of understanding at its regular meeting Thursday morning.
Various entities in the region are forming a regional agricultural planning partnership. The letter of understanding is “Regarding Collaboration on Regional Agriculture Development In the South Puget South/SW Washington Region.” It is an informal partnership to form a regional strategy for agriculture development. The point is to coordinate efforts to maximize available funds.
According to the letter, initial partners include the Port of Chehalis, Thurston Economic Development Council, Thurston Co. WSU Extension, Northwest Agriculture Business Center, South Puget Sound Community College, Centralia College, the City of Tenino and the City of Tumwater. There are more than 20 other invited partners in the letter, and the partners can change over time.
In December 2018, Mueller discussed adding a grain storage facility and transload facility for farmers to ship specialty grains. At the time, Mueller said the Port of Chehalis did not have its hand in the agriculture industry.
“There has been a long-standing interest in having a grain storage facility,” said Mueller in December 2018. “The idea being that there is a limited amount of grain being grown locally. A lot of hay, but not too much in the way of grain. But there are farmers and if they had somewhere to store and then transload and export grain, that would be able to boost their operations — make more money growing grain instead of hay and do more. So there has been this interest in a grain storage facility.”
The project began after the Lewis County Farm Bureau invited Mueller and Lewis Economic Development Executive Director Matt Matayoshi to meet and discuss local farmers’ needs. One was the demand for a grain storage facility.
In summer 2018, WSU Extension completed two surveys — one for grain growers in the region (Lewis County, Thurston County, Grays Harbor County) and their need for a facility for export or transload, as well as a grain-users survey. The results of those surveys echoed what the Lewis County Farm Bureau told Mueller and Matayoshi.
“It was that WSU survey of grain growers and grain buyers that really identified what the farmers were saying all along, but we had no proof that there was need for a grain storage facility,” said Mueller Thursday. “So the WSU studies quantified it as much as they could. They have been providing support to continue this.”
The letter of understanding outlines the parties’ intent to collaborate on regional agricultural projects. The objective of the letter is to “Increase the effectiveness of agricultural development initiatives,” “Enhance and improve efficiencies,” “Advance a regional strategy aligned with a unified vision for agriculture development” and “Maximize public and private funds and finance opportunities by coordinating regionally.”
The letter outlines regional initiatives of interest and the lead entities. The Port of Chehalis will lead the “Chehalis Valley Grain Facility” project in Chehalis.
The other projects are the Southwest Washington Regional Agricultural Business & Innovation Park in Tenino, Craft District & Olympia Brewery Property Redevelopment in Tumwater and Craft Brewing and Distilling Center in Tumwater. The letter states that the regional initiatives will change.
Mueller said the Office of Chehalis Basin, an office within the Department of Ecology, will fund a part-time staff position through the end of the biennium. This staff person will work on regional agricultural projects with the partners.
