Heavy Equipment School Plan Has Rural Neighbors Honking
The loudest noise that Steve and Kathy Winters hear at their 45-acre farm near Spangle is honking geese.
Now, they’re afraid that cranes are coming to nest next door - along with bulldozers and other heavy equipment.
The Operating Engineers union has applied to build a training school about 660 feet east of the Winters’ land, off Jennings Road in southern Spokane County. The program would teach students how to operate construction cranes.
“It cannot even be seen from Jennings Road,” said Danny Thiemens, training director for the engineers. “It’s a long ways from the nearest residence. It’s out of sight.”
Not yet, however. A trailer, a yellow bulldozer and a red and blue crane are visible from the private road being built to the 30-acre site. The previous owner donated the land to the Operating Engineers in exchange for building two roads to his property.
Some neighbors aren’t happy about the equipment or plans for the site.
“Being out here right now, all you basically hear is the geese,” Kathy Winters said on a recent sunny afternoon. “They’re going to be over there, running bulldozers and cranes.”
As if on cue, a flock of geese in the yard sounded a chorus. Clyde the goat bleated. Turkeys, cows, a horse and sometimes pigs also call the Winters’ farm home.
For some neighbors, equipment noise isn’t the only issue. They worry about dusty roads, polluted wetlands and streams and lots of traffic.
“It’s the idea they’re coming into an agricultural zone and they’re sliding in under the questionable category of a junior college,” said Eleanor Hill, who lives a little more than a mile east of the site.
The county Planning Department decided the proposed school qualifies as a junior college, allowed under the general agricultural zone.
Some neighbors have appealed the decision, and a hearing date has been set for April 19 by the county Board of Adjustment.
The Operating Engineers union also must receive a conditional use permit to build a school. The union has filled out some of the paperwork, but another hearing must be held. A date has not yet been set.
Thiemens said neighbors harbor misconceptions about the school, which is needed because the union has outgrown its training sites at Columbia Basin College in Pasco and at Spokane Community College.
“We want to be good neighbors,” Thiemens said. “We’re not out there to disturb them or harm them. We’re there to be an asset.”
The Operating Engineers training program already has built a paved city street for Spangle to give emergency vehicles access to a girl with whooping cough, Thiemens said.
The Spangle mayor and City Council have endorsed the school.
The crane-training program would be the first of its kind in Washington. Thiemens said it’s necessary because of a new state law to license crane operators. A crane collapse that killed two workers in Seattle’s Kingdome Aug. 17 prompted the legislation.
The school also eventually might provide hazardous-materials training. Its original application said the school would train apprentices “on all types of construction equipment, including a rock crushing unit.”
If approved, the school probably would hold more classes in the slow construction seasons of fall, winter and early spring. About 15 students would be taught at a time, Thiemens said. A small dormitory eventually would be used for students to spend the night.
Four cranes now at Spokane Community College would be used at the school, which would be allowed to operate them from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Most training hours would be on Saturday, Thiemens said.
“There’s not going to be a lot of heavy traffic or a jillion people going to the school,” Thiemens said.
Some neighbors aren’t convinced that there won’t be traffic problems. Jennings Road is a narrow dirt strip, already pockmarked with potholes neighbors say are from Operating Engineers’ heavy equipment.
“We don’t dislike Operating Engineers,” Kathy Winters said. “We’re not against the college. But what they’re doing doesn’t belong in this area.”