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Last month, Darigold Inc. announced the impending closure of its Chehalis production facility at the end of the year.
The decision came in the wake of a 2023 property evaluation from the Lewis County Assessor’s Office that the company successfully challenged earlier this year.
Despite Darigold’s success in getting a new property evaluation, reducing the property value by over $70 million, the Chehalis facility is being closed as it is also in need of expensive upgrades and Darigold just opened a new $900 million production facility in Pasco.
However, Lewis County still had to refund Darigold approximately $1.2 million, which took several smaller taxing districts “in the red,” according to Lewis County Treasurer Arny Davis, who attended the Thursday, Sept. 25, Port of Chehalis meeting, in order to better explain how the refund impacted the port.
Davis attended the meeting following an undated letter from Lewis County Assessor Ross Nielson’s office.
“I believe that the assessor’s office did send a letter out to the port, but it was a little ambiguous, at best,” Davis said.
According to the letter, as the Darigold facility was within the port’s taxing district, the port may choose to request a refund levy to be included in 2026 tax levy calculations to make up for the loss of Darigold tax revenue.
With the Port of Chehalis being a part of the Lewis County Investment Pool (LCIP), Davis told port staff that they didn’t “technically” have to do anything.
“If you go negative in the pool, the investment software will just charge you, currently around 4.3% for that amount of time,” Davis said.
However, the process of transferring financial data from the county’s accounting software to the investment software and then back to the accounting software is a time-consuming task.
“It’s just too arduous and time-consuming to do that process on a daily basis,” Davis added. “... I wish the system was more robust from that perspective, but at this point in time, it’s just not. We have a consultant with an AI that says they might be able to do something for us, but getting the commissioners to cut loose with a little cash for that may be a little bit of a challenge.”
This means it takes longer for the port to see where it is actually sitting in the LCIP. Davis stated that the $1.2 million refund was still an anomaly.
He further explained he felt the port’s current stake in the LCIP was geared up for growth over the next two to three years.
“But then, that’s my crystal ball, and you know what happens when you try to guess the market,” Davis said.
Port of Chehalis CEO Lindsey Senter told Davis she had no issue with how Lewis County staff went about collecting the money for Darigold’s refund, but wanted more of a heads up in similar situations in the future, along with more financial details and actual numbers in any notice about situations like this.
“(The letter) is very nebulous, but again, he’s (Nielson) centrally elected, and I can’t tell him how to run his office,” Davis said.
Port of Chehalis Commissioner Paul Ericson asked if any other companies within their taxing district had also appealed their property evaluations.
“Should we expect more of this?” Ericson asked.
Davis stated he didn’t know and suggested they reach out to the assessor’s office.
“I kind of expect this is just the tip of the iceberg at this point,” Port of Chehalis Commissioner Mark Anders added.
Port of Chehalis attorney Daniel Murray also asked Davis for a breakdown of the interest payments included in the $1.2 million refund, along with a copy of the county’s settlement agreement with Darigold.
“From my perspective, part of the ambiguity, opaqueness around the process is, as you pointed out from the tax refund letter, which isn’t even dated … So we don’t even know when it was sent,” Murray said. “But I think it’s just helpful for us to understand the process a bit better — because I think it’s been opaque at the minute — and really understand what goes into that $1.2 million. Just so that we can try and better prepare for the future.”
Senter added she believed this situation could happen again soon, and wanted to be better prepared with the large business tenants the port has.
Darigold employee outreach
Aside from the Port of Chehalis’ financial position, it was also announced during Thursday’s meeting the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce was holding a rapid response meeting with Darigold in order to try to help the 54 employees still currently working at the Chehalis Darigold facility on Friday.
Port staff were asked to check with their tenants to see if they might have any positions available for the Darigold employees so they can continue working in the area. Senter stated she would help with the efforts.
Senter said she was thankful to the Thurston County chamber for its efforts.
According to The Chronicle’s archives, the Chehalis Darigold plant went into operation in 1975.
For more information on the Darigold Inc. Chehalis production facility closure and the business’s property value assessment challenge, read The Chronicle’s coverage at https://tinyurl.com/bddkbcyz.
