Commissioner creates jobs
Steve Stuart is putting his money where his mouth is – which is a lot to say for a politician these days.
In my first conversations with Stuart, when he was running for the position he holds on the Clark County Board of Commissioners, his emphasis was squarely on job creation and making those jobs accessible by transportation infrastructure – making jobs in Clark County – as he called – the “low hanging fruit.”
In total, the commission approved 1,362 acres of “employment center” land, with the lion’s share going to Washougal and Camas. According to the county’s land use program manager, as reported in a page one story by Megan Patrick, these areas allow for more intensive job-related uses, such as professional offices and research- and technology-related industries in a campus-like setting.
Employment center land offers more flexibility than industrial land and is attractive to the high-tech and renewable energy sectors.
While some say the market for industrial and light industrial lands is still underserved, the focus on job creation seems solid.
Too many masters
Gov. Chris Gregoire announced appointments to the new State Economic Development Commission earlier this month. Of the eleven members on the board, eight of them hailed from the Puget Sound. Not one person from Southwest Washington is on the commission. Unless a commissioner ends his or term early, there will not be another chance to see this region, which spans from Grays Harbor to Skamania, represented on the commission for another three years. While Bart Phillips of the CREDC says this is not a huge issue from a fundamental economic development standpoint, I can’t help but to acknowledge that is a huge political issue for the area and yet another example of the state’s economic development activities being centered in the Puget Sound area. By the way, while the legislation determined that the commission be geographically representative in addition to being representative in terms of ethnicity and activity, only two commissioners hail from the east, one from the northwest part of the state and none from central, which was specifically stated in the legislation.
Seems to me this commission was trying to serve too many masters in its “diversity” but was somehow able to satisfy them almost fully in the Puget Sound.
Community banking
Financial institutions have been up to good this month. Bank of Clark County started a new certificate of deposit on Nov. 8, which is part of statewide effort by financial institutions to support veterans. $300,000,000 in deposits would result in $6 million annually for veterans family benefits, assuming prevailing rates, and dispersed by the local Veterans Innovations Program to investor donations directly to veterans and their families.
Meanwhile, Columbia Credit Union launched its first green financial product on Nov. 1. Called the “E-Go” loan, members will be offered a discount on their auto loan when they purchase a vehicle that meets specific criteria established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Kudos!
