January 2022 Economic Report

The Alliance Year In Review

DeBolt Highlights Building Efficiencies Into Infrastructure Projects in Lewis County Via a ‘Dig Once’ Effort

By the Economic Alliance of Lewis County

The future of economic prosperity and a project to streamline infrastructure projects in Lewis County was highlighted by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County Executive Director Richard DeBolt at Monday’s Chehalis City Council meeting.

“It’s been a good year for us,” DeBolt said, adding his agency has been able to help recruit several companies.

DeBolt touched on Georgia-Pacific moving into Centralia this year with its 85 jobs; as well as the opening of a new 215,000-square-foot facility also in Centralia by Ryerson Steel that aims to open in the third quarter of this year employing about 60 employees. DeBolt also detailed The Alliance’s involvement in a proposed Energy Innovation Center as detailed in a story published below.

The bulk of his presentation, however, focused on a simple yet potentially major cost-cutting project headed up by The Alliance best described as a “dig once” effort on countywide infrastructure projects such as improving culverts, expanding broadband, extending sewer projects and repairing roads. The idea is to create a map of all such projects planned for Lewis County in the next 10 years, and find areas where projects intersect and do all the projects at that site together. 

Dig once is simple, direct and efficient, DeBolt said. It can also lead to substantial development dollars for Lewis County under a new program initiated by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County project to tap into both American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal dollars and also dollars tucked into the state Legislature’s Capital Budget. ARPA was signed into law by President

Alliance Supports Creation of Hydrogen Center in Chehalis

By Lewis Economic Development Council

Todd Chaput
Initiatives Program Manager

The future of economic prosperity and a project to streamline infrastructure projects in Lewis County was highlighted by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County Executive Director Richard DeBolt at Monday’s Chehalis City Council meeting.

“It’s been a good year for us,” DeBolt said, adding his agency has been able to help recruit several companies.

DeBolt touched on Georgia-Pacific moving into Centralia this year with its 85 jobs; as well as the opening of a new 215,000-square-foot facility also in Centralia by Ryerson Steel that aims to open in the third quarter of this year employing about 60 employees. DeBolt also detailed The Alliance’s involvement in a proposed Energy Innovation Center as detailed in a story published below.

The bulk of his presentation, however, focused on a simple yet potentially major cost-cutting project headed up by The Alliance best described as a “dig once” effort on countywide infrastructure projects such as improving culverts, expanding broadband, extending sewer projects and repairing roads. The idea is to create a map of all such projects planned for Lewis County in the next 10 years, and find areas where projects intersect and do all the projects at that site together. 

Dig once is simple, direct and efficient, DeBolt said. It can also lead to substantial development dollars for Lewis County under a new program initiated by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County project to tap into both American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal dollars and also dollars tucked into the state Legislature’s Capital Budget. ARPA was signed into law by President Joe Biden last year. The stimulus package will fund $1.9 trillion in infrastructure projects. 

“We’ve never rewarded efficiency very well in government so what we set out to do this year is for The Alliance to create an opportunity where we could create a map that is completely interactive and able to look at all the projects in our county, and try and coordinate these projects,” said DeBolt.

He said every time projects can be coordinated the savings are 30% to 40%, DeBolt said.

With funding from the county and the cities of Centralia and Chehalis, The Alliance is tasked with building and maintaining a layered map of all projects underway or planned in the county. About 700 infrastructure projects are underway in Lewis County. 

Once the interactive map is complete, leaders can examine areas of concurrent development. It could be a new sewer line. It could be fiber for broadband. It could be putting in sidewalks or fish passage culverts. 

DeBolt understands how government funding works, spending the past two decades in the state Legislature, with many years serving as the Minority Leader of the House, and then for the past couple years before retiring from politics as the Minority Republican House Leader on the Capital Budget Committee. DeBolt knows how to get projects placed at the top of funding lists, and how government deciders choose projects that are multijurisdictional and that can be completed. 

By putting together the layered map, Lewis County leaders can pitch the multi-jurisdiction projects that emerge. Specifically, ARPA funds clean water, sewer, road and broadband projects. DeBolt has hired Todd Chaput to run the program for The Alliance with the cooperation of scores of federal, state, county and city agencies. Chaput’s title is Initiatives Program Manager. His primary task is getting the agencies to supply data of their projects underway or planned, and then with the help of county employees, to put together the comprehensive list of layered projects. 

The Alliance and other leaders will now lobby Olympia to fund the various projects, starting with this year’s short session in Olympia. Chaput said typically the funding organizations offer up 80% of the cost of a project, with the county or other entities coming up with the rest of the 20% cost. 

The main idea, DeBolt said, was to get local projects on this year’s capital budget, and hope for some funding. But the majority of funding will be done during next year’s capital budget discussions and by getting on lists now, Lewis County projects will have a leg up on other state projects vying for capital budget funding next year.

“The nice thing with this map,” Chaput told the Chehalis City Council, “is that everybody can see what everybody else is going to do over the projected 10-year future.”

Alliance Supports Creation of Hydrogen Center in Chehalis

By Lewis Economic Development Council

Members of the Energy Innovation Coalition (EIC) presented information last week to the Port of Chehalis commissioners regarding their progress in the planning of Washington state’s first hydrogen fueling station — slated to begin construction in the Chehalis Industrial Park off of Bishop Road (at LaBree Road, exit 74) in June.

According to the EIC group, including members of the Economic Alliance of Lewis County, Twin Transit, and others, the plan is to begin construction this summer on what will eventually become a 30 to 40 acre site in the industrial park that will include both a hydrogen fueling station and a business park focused on catering to high-tech hydrogen research, development, and innovation organizations.

Ultimately, this EIC would like to see Centralia and Chehalis together become what’s called a “hydrogen valley” that both creates energy and facilitates the creation of Washington’s hydrogen energy market. There are currently 36 existing hydrogen valley projects worldwide and they often start in former “coal communities,” meaning those communities that previously had a wide economic base in coal that no longer exists.

“We have been able to meet with several companies that want to move into the hydrogen space,” DeBolt said. “We are looking for opportunities to come to areas in Washington state to further invest into our community. Some of those are as large as $800 million into our community and some are as small as $25 million into our community.”

This project utilizes both funding earmarked by the Washington state Legislature and will seek federal and grant funding, as well. The Lewis Economic Alliance says they will assist with permitting the project and that it will go “online” officially and be completed in 2023.

This planned fueling station would also be providing hydrogen to Twin Transit, who will obtain hydrogen transit vehicles, and also create research opportunities for TOYOTA & Toyota USA, who have already agreed to donate several hydrogen-powered vehicles to local Twin Transit, pending local hydrogen fueling availability.

HB1792

In addition, a bill is working its way through the Legislature that will expand the ability of public utilities to produce, sell and distribute hydrogen. House Bill 1792 passed its first 

An architect’s drawing illustrates a planned hydrogen fueling station at the Port of Chehalis.

Members of the Energy Innovation Coalition (EIC) presented information last week to the Port of Chehalis commissioners regarding their progress in the planning of Washington state’s first hydrogen fueling station — slated to begin construction in the Chehalis Industrial Park off of Bishop Road (at LaBree Road, exit 74) in June.

According to the EIC group, including members of the Economic Alliance of Lewis County, Twin Transit, and others, the plan is to begin construction this summer on what will eventually become a 30 to 40 acre site in the industrial park that will include both a hydrogen fueling station and a business park focused on catering to high-tech hydrogen research, development, and innovation organizations.

Ultimately, this EIC would like to see Centralia and Chehalis together become what’s called a “hydrogen valley” that both creates energy and facilitates the creation of Washington’s hydrogen energy market. There are currently 36 existing hydrogen valley projects worldwide and they often start in former “coal communities,” meaning those communities that previously had a wide economic base in coal that no longer exists.

“We have been able to meet with several companies that want to move into the hydrogen space,” DeBolt said. “We are looking for opportunities to come to areas in Washington state to further invest into our community. Some of those are as large as $800 million into our community and some are as small as $25 million into our community.”

This project utilizes both funding earmarked by the Washington state Legislature and will seek federal and grant funding, as well. The Lewis Economic Alliance says they will assist with permitting the project and that it will go “online” officially and be completed in 2023.

This planned fueling station would also be providing hydrogen to Twin Transit, who will obtain hydrogen transit vehicles, and also create research opportunities for TOYOTA & Toyota USA, who have already agreed to donate several hydrogen-powered vehicles to local Twin Transit, pending local hydrogen fueling availability.

HB1792

In addition, a bill is working its way through the Legislature that will expand the ability of public utilities to produce, sell and distribute hydrogen. House Bill 1792 passed its first hurdles by the House Environment and Energy Committee last week. The bill is cosponsored by 20th Legislative District Reps. Peter Abbarno, R-Cenhurdles as it was approved tralia, and Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama.

“HB 1792, which passed unanimously from the House Environment and Energy Committee, authorizes and incentivizes the expansion of hydrogen through tax exemptions. The passage of HB 1792 builds on the green hydrogen refueling station infrastructure funds I was able to help secure in the 2021 Capital Budget,” Abbarno said in a statement.

“There is a lot of effort and focus to help leverage our ideal location between Seattle and Portland to build and produce this type of clean transportation fuel,” he continued.

Electrolytic hydrogen is produced by way of “electrolysis,” a chemical process which energizes water to separate the compounds into hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Where the energy comes from to produce electrolysis can determine the gas’s cleanliness. Renewable hydrogen is produced through “renewable” sources that cannot be depleted, such as wind or solar.

The bill would also add the production of green electrolytic hydrogen to a number of existing tax exemptions that currently apply to renewable hydrogen, and would create a public utility tax exemption on retail sales tax, use tax and leasehold excise tax through 2025

ToledoTel and County Awarded $23.5M

Money Will Bring Additional High-Speed Internet to South Lewis County

By The Lewis Economic Development Council

From left to right: State Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia; ToledoTel Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dale Merten; former Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Alicia Bull; and Economic Alliance of Lewis County Executive Director Richard DeBolt stand before a map of expanded broadband coverage at a recent open house at ToledoTel. 

Lewis County and ToledoTel received the largest chunk of funding last week when the Washington State Broadband Office published its list of awardees for the first round of Infrastructure Acceleration Grants.

About $23.5 million will be awarded to Lewis County and ToledoTel in a public-private partnership that will aim to bring high-speed, fiber-optic internet to more than 1,800 Winlock residents by the end of 2026.

The Washington State Broadband Office has awarded more than $145 million in first-grant funding to 13 projects statewide. The Lewis County Public Utility District was not among the awardees listed; the PUD hopes to find funding to bring broadband out to Randle-Packwood.

With more than 1,800 broadband subscribers currently, the Winlock project is expected to double ToledoTel’s servicing network and customer base over the next five years. The project would cover 250 miles of fiber construction within the Winlock area.

ToledoTel hopes to break ground on the project sometime later this year and have about 820 new customers connected by the end of 2022.

Lewis County and its partner ToledoTel were the winners of a $23.5 million grant from the Washington State Broadband Office to build out broadband infrastructure and provide access to high speed internet service to about 2,300 homes in the greater Winlock area.

“Lewis County ranked fifth out of 13 awardees and received the largest maximum award in this round of funding. The proposed project would start this year and wrap up by the end of 2026,” read a Friday news release from the county.

“Together, Lewis County, ToledoTel and Lewis County PUD have been awarded a little more than $36 million in broadband infrastructure funding and will continue to seek future funding opportunities outlined in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” the news release continued.

“This project is important to us because a lack of broadband access is a major challenge for many residents in Lewis County,” ToledoTel stated in a news release. “According to a recent survey, about 77% of customers in the Lewis County Public Utility District’s service area don’t have reliable access to high-speed broadband internet. The pandemic has proved that access to reliable broadband is a necessity, and fiber internet, with its reliability and longevity, is the best solution. Welcome to the ToledoTel family Winlock.”

Economic Alliance of Lewis County Executive Director Richard DeBolt and Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston give a presentation on a planned hydrogen fueling station to the Port of Chehalis commissioners last week.