Go West, young person. It worked for those who heeded the advice of 19th-century newspaperman Horace Greeley, and it just might work for today’s job seekers, who on the West Plains will find companies hiring workers or likely to do so as the region and nation emerge from recession.
Barr Regional Bio-Industrial Park. Kind of a mouthful and, in a sense, it is. Or will be. Because the proposed composting, anaerobic-digesting, algae-growing and megawatt-generating complex will eat food and other organic waste now trucked to central Washington. If the rollout goes as supporters hope, the park might also attract solar development and greenhouses, eventually becoming a model for similar developments all over the Northwest.
Cross the Spokane County line heading north, south or west, and you enter Arum Kone territory, As regional economist since February 2008, Kone has been taking the pulse of a nine-county area he likens to North Idaho because of its substantial dependence on natural resources, about which he knows something. The Portland native spent eight years in Kodiak, Alaska, before moving into his Walla Walla office.
A proposed hangar and the 266 jobs that would go with it remains a priority for Spokane International Airport, Director Neal Sealock said Friday, a day after state officials balked at awarding the project all of a $6.8 million construction loan. The Community Economic Revitalization Board instead came through with $4 million, a commitment Sealock called a “catalyst” that will enable the project to go forward.
Deb Halstead’s fourth-grade class at Garfield Elementary School got a lesson in adding big numbers Thursday. Greater Spokane Inc. had prepared a banner touting $1.5 billion in area construction projects. But the total had grown to $1.7 billion when her students unfurled the message before business and education leaders celebrating commitments made to build or reconstruct schools and roads, banks and seminaries, pools and auto dealerships.
Deb Halstead’s fourth-grade class at Garfield Elementary School got a lesson in adding big numbers Thursday.
Greater Spokane Inc. had prepared a banner touting $1.5 billion in area construction projects. But the total had grown to $1.7 billion when her students unfurled the message before business and education leaders celebrating commitments made to build or reconstruct schools and roads, banks and seminaries, pools and auto dealerships.
Washington’s chief economist Wednesday forecast a slow recovery that will not return state revenues to fiscal 2008 levels until 2011. Income from sales, business and occupation, and other taxes continues to fall below predictions – even those made as recently as March, said Arun Raha, who became Washington’s top economist just as the Sept. 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers threw the national economy into a tailspin.
Apply 2 Save Inc. in Coeur d’Alene has closed its doors, shutting out hundreds of frustrated customers who did not receive the mortgage help they paid for and employees who are owed wages. The Internal Revenue Service on Monday filed four tax liens totaling more than $663,000 for unpaid 2008 federal unemployment and income taxes. The state of Idaho has filed a nearly $52,000 lien for unpaid withholding tax.
Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson, warned Tuesday against protectionism that could damage the $600 billion trade relationship between the two countries. The trade volume exceeds that between any other two countries in the world, he said, noting that Canada buys more U.S. goods than Europe, and four times as much as China.
Unemployment in Washington held steady in April for the first time in more than a year. The rate in Spokane County fell. After climbing steadily since January 2008, the statewide rate for April held at 9.1 percent, the same rate reported for March.
Flights in and out of Spokane International Airport will be diverted to an east-west runway until mid-September while crews begin infrastructure work that will set the stage for a 2,000-foot extension of the main runway next year.
Social Security passed a threshold last week that might get some hard decisions made in Washington, D.C. Might. In an annual review released Tuesday, the system’s board of trustees said trust fund distributions will exceed income in 2016. The fund will continue to be depleted until it is exhausted in 2037. Those milestones advanced one year and four years, respectively, from last year’s estimates.
Two almost-complete luxury log buildings in North Idaho are sitting in the yard at Edgewood Log Structures, and company owner Brian Schafer has a deal for anyone who will take one or both off his hands. Edgewood, located about one mile north of the Silverwood Theme Park on Highway 95, was stuck with the buildings when the would-be owners lost their financing, he said.
There were supposed to be two planes in the Cascade Aerospace USA Inc. hangar at Spokane International Airport for a Thursday afternoon dedication ceremony. But workers finished the maintenance checks on one of those planes early, and out the door it went. “It’s more important to get the product back in the hands of the customer,” Cascade President Bret Burnside said after thanking a crowd of Spokane government officials, business leaders and the 60 employees gathered in what had been a Washington National Guard helicopter hangar.
Foreclosures in Kootenai County accelerated in April, jumping 52 percent over March levels and to a level more than fourfold that of last April, according to statistics released Wednesday by RealtyTrac Inc., an online marketplace for foreclosed properties. In Spokane, meanwhile, foreclosures dropped significantly month over month and year over year.
A nationwide auction that closed May 1 did not result in the sale of either the former Y Building on East First Avenue, or the Ridpath Hotel space once occupied by the popular Ankeny’s restaurant. But NAI Black agents Jon Jeffreys and Mark McLees said they plan to re-offer both properties as well as several others because of the leads that were generated. McLees said the alliance with Florida-based Higginbotham Auctioneers worked well, but there was not enough time to sort out many of the issues that came up as the auction progressed. For example, he said, how elevator access to the two top floors – once home to Ankeny’s – would work while the rest of the Ridpath is redeveloped, or how utility metering would be split.
The April home foreclosure rate in Kootenai County jumped 52 percent from March, and almost five-fold from last April, according to statistics released Wednesday by RealtyTrac Inc., an online marketplace for foreclosed properties.
Homes sales in Spokane County leveled off in April, and average and median prices slipped, possibly reflecting high unemployment in the area, the head of the Spokane Association of Realtors said Friday.
Sterling Financial Corp. has walled off the former food court occupying the second floor of its downtown headquarters so crews can begin remodeling the 12,500-square-foot space. The pedestrian corridor still follows the familiar path linking the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza to the Crescent Building, Vice President Dave Brukardt said. But the route will jog to the left for those walking north from the skywalk when remodeling work is completed late this summer, Brukardt said.
Spokane officials estimate the AT&T 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships will generate almost $17 million in direct spending and almost $1.4 million in local and state taxes. Throw in a “modest” 1.75 multiplier to account for secondary spending – spending by people who made money from the event – and the total economic impact comes in at $25.7 million, with tax revenues of $2.3 million, said Gavin Cooley, the city’s chief financial officer.
Spokane officials estimate the AT&T 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships will generate almost $17 million in direct spending and almost $1.4 million in local and state taxes.
