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.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S CORNER
The Alliance Is Promoting the Building of Infrastructure and Business Support
By Richard DeBolt
I know “infrastructure” isn’t the most exciting topic to get your juices flowing, but what it lacks in luster it overflows with the foundational heft that is the basic building block of economic development.
At the Chehalis City Council earlier this week I gave a presentation of the Year In Review for the Economic Alliance of Lewis County. As reported in stories at left in this Economic Report, we discussed a project where we are mapping all the various planned infrastructure projects countywide that we can bunch together to gain efficiencies and save development money in a “dig once” effort (these projects can include fish passage or culvert rehabilitation, broadband expansion, sewer upgrades and roads).
This Alliance report also included an update on a planned hydrogen fueling station at the Port of Chehalis, and on page 2 of this report we detail the exciting news coming out of ToledoTel to expand broadband coverage in South Lewis County.
All three of those projects deserve attention as I believe the infrastructure that comes out of those efforts will lead to future decent paying jobs within new businesses in Lewis County and also the continued health of existing businesses. And while we highlight the mapping, hydrogen center and broadband expansion, there are a few other items of note.
The Alliance pushed forward this past year on recruitment of outside businesses and some direct marketing for Lewis County and the economic opportunities available here in the south sound (stay tuned as we expect to announce two new recruitment projects next month).
Another solid project of The Alliance is our Business Development center. We hired the highly capable Dolly Tardiff to head up the center as Program Manager. Along with monthly workshops that aim to put more tools into the business success toolbelt, Dolly also offers existing and new business help as they plan, start, manage and grow. Dolly offers her free services to Alliance members that includes everything from obtaining the proper permits and licenses, to one-on-one consultations. Dolly is well positioned to offer assistance as she has run her own successful business in Lewis County since 1992.
The Alliance staff recently completed an exercise at our annual retreat on what we believe we do and what is our purpose. Our focus boiled down to our customer is the community, what we can do to better enhance the employees and help our employers, and what can we do to bring more businesses and tax base to Lewis County.
Specifically, for the Chehalis City Council presentation this past Monday, I highlighted several projects we are helping shepherd through, in partnership with the county. They are improved parking at the Rec Park, North Market Boulevard reconstruction, the Chehalis River Raw Water Main replacement and the Chamber Way/BNSF bridge replacement.
I’m set to give a similar presentation in two weeks before the Centralia City Council where I will detail projects we are keeping a helpful eye on for the Hub City.
The Economic Alliance of Lewis County will continue to push projects with the ultimate aim of attracting family wage jobs to Lewis County and also assisting existing businesses. We also will continue our efforts to bring the various state, county and city government entities to work together for our greater good, along with the help of several groups and agencies that focus on economic development.
It’s been a good year for The Alliance in 2021. This coming year looks to continue with our success as some of our key projects mature.
Georgia-Pacific Acquires Expansion Property in Centralia
Opportunity for New Facility to Meet Growing Demand in the Pacific Northwest
By Lewis Economic Development Council
Georgia-Pacific has acquired property in Centralia with the intent to expand corrugated packaging operations in the Pacific Northwest. Future expansion would help meet the needs of customers in the region.
The newly acquired property in Centralia is convenient to the Interstate 5 corridor and would complement the company’s existing operation in Olympia.
“Georgia-Pacific’s corrugated business has strong relationships with produce and e-commerce customers, and a new facility will help us serve these growing customer segments,” said Travis Dawson, VP – west region for the corrugated business. “The solid performance of our Olympia plant gives us confidence in the ability to expand business in the region.”
“The Economic Alliance of Lewis County is excited to have Georgia-Pacific expand to our community. They have a long history of collaboration in working to support families in the Pacific Northwest,” said Richard DeBolt, executive director.
Expansion plans are still in the early stages. Once plans are solidified, it is expected a new facility would create about 85 new jobs.
About Georgia-Pacific Packaging
Based in Atlanta, Georgia–Pacific is a leading integrated packaging supplier providing a full range of packaging solutions across the U.S., including containerboard, corrugated boxes and sheets, recyclable mailers for e-commerce, high-graphic packaging through our Color-Box business and digital print for packaging through our Hummingbird business. The company’s recycling subsidiary is among the world’s largest traders of paper, metal and plastics, contributing to a paper recovery rate of just over 65 percent and a corrugated recovery rate of about 90 percent in the U.S. For more information, visit: gppackaging.com.
Property Spotlight — For Sale
Bank Parcel Downtown Chehalis
Size: 0.14 acres, about 6,000 square feet
Parking: 0.26 acres, about 11,200 square feet
ATM and Drive Thru parcel: 0.12 acres, about 5,100 square feet
Zoning: Central Business District
• Offering includes three separate parcels
• Main entrance fronting North Market Boulevard which is the dominant arterial in downtown Chehalis
• Marble type finishes on the exterior of the building
• Hard corner location for the building
• Parking on all streets fronting the building
• Neighboring businesses are primarily local operations
• Parking lot parcel located within one block of the main branch
• Drive-thru parcel on the corner of NW Pacific Ave & NW Chehalis