Governor urges state to work together
Governor urges state to work together
Gregoire speaks on water, transportation issues facing area
MOSES LAKE — Washington's citizens need to work together to invest in the infrastructure and future of central Washington, and the state as a whole.
That was the message Governor Christine Gregoire gave during a keynote address to a luncheon crowd at the Grant County Advanced Technologies Education Center on the Big Bend Community College campus Wednesday. The governor spoke during a visit to the area where she also toured the BBCC campus, visited highway projects and met with students at Lakeview Elementary School in Moses Lake.
"We are in a dramatically changing time," Gregoire told the luncheon group at BBCC, "and that puts us on the task forward that if we're not willing to step up and make those necessary changes, so that we can continue to compete in this global marketplace, we will have no choice but to fall behind."
The governor was invited to the area by local Rotary clubs, and State Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Moses Lake, and numerous other local organizations. The visit was the first for Gregoire since taking office, but the governor began her address by telling of her roots in the area, and the Faber Family whom she called her second family in Moses Lake.
"I spent many, many a December doing inventory at Faber Industrial Supply company," Gregoire said, "but in the summertime I learned to water ski on Moses Lake. So I am no stranger to this area, and I share the enthusiasm about this area."
Gregoire admitted that she was frustrated about the idea that there is an eastern Washington and a western Washington, and said they need to come together through public/private partnerships in ideas like educational research. And Gregoire said she has found potential in Grant County, and cited an educated workforce, low electrical rates and large tracts open for industrial development as the drawing points. She said the potential also lies in the community, government and business leaders who have joined on projects.
In the last few years, Gregoire said the world has become smaller and smaller and more well connected, adding that small- and middle-size companies are now involved in trading relationships in Asia and Europe.
"The future, in my opinion, belongs to those individuals, those businesses both large and small and to those governments that have the foresight to see tomorrow's playing fields and are willing to get out there and do what's necessary to remain competitive," she said.
On recent trips to Asia and Europe, Gregoire said she has seen other countries show enthusiasm for Washington products like quality wine, cherries and potatoes. She has seen a niche develop that comes from the agricultural products from the state of Washington.
"Our niche in the world marketplace is literally the finest quality, safest agricultural products anywhere we have," she said.
To ensure the future, Gregoire said that the fundamental goal should be to find a solution to the water supply problem of central Washington. The methods needed to solve the water problem, she said, need to be up to the residents of the state of Washington.
"We are in Odessa, for example, running out of water and that's why in just the last couple of weeks we gave a $600,000 grant to study what can we do," the governor said.
The answer for the water problem is storage, and she said small storage projects around central Washington are needed to show people that it can be a success. The kind of economic success people in Grant County are to enjoy, she said, will only happen if they can find those water storage projects.
But Gregoire also came to speak about transportation, and she said the fundamental need is making sure Washington's highway infrastructure is safe. Mulliken introduced the governor, and said that while she and the governor disagreed on most things, they did agree on the importance of local infrastructure.
Gregoire cited the statistic that 57 percent of fatalities on Washington roadways are two-lane crossover collisions, and shared her own tragedy of a crossover accident that killed a lifelong friend traveling on an eastern Washington highway. The governor told the audience that she will do everything she can as long as she serves to ensure the care of citizens who travel on state roads.
Washington has neglected to pay attention to those fundamental principals with regard to roads, and Gregoire said they are fundamentals that must be paid attention to. Grant County has both an energy and a broadband infrastructure, but Gregoire said that the infrastructure of roads has become critical.
"It's a critical moment in time for us," Gregoire said. "We are either going to move the state forward and say we'll not continue that neglect. Or, we're going to maintain that status quo."
Area projects like Highway 17, the Potato Hill Bridge and Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90 were a few of those projects Gregoire said specifically that needed repairs.
While touring Highway 17, Gregoire said that she did not go to the legislature at the first of the year with the intent of raising the gas tax, but said she could not have looked herself in the mirror in the waning days of the legislative session if she had taken the politically easy way out on transportation, and said the increase is the best investment that could be made to save lives on highways.
"My friends, we can either begin to leave the kind of legacy that we want to leave to our children and to our economic future, or we can fail and if we fail we suffer the consequences," she said at BBCC.
With the rising price of gasoline, Gregoire said she couldn't be more sympathetic and called the escalating price of gas a tragedy. But she told the gathered audience that just 3 cents of the dollar increase in pump prices in the last year is going toward projects and maintenance.
"I'm just as irritated as the next person," Gregoire said while talking about the rising cost of gasoline, "but none of that money is coming to Washington state."
As a state and nation, Gregoire said there needs to be a focus on alternative energy and a weaning off of foreign oil. She proposed that Washington should begin the process to become a leader just in the nation but the world. By beginning the process at Washington State University, the benefits can be kept right in the state of Washington.
"At $3 a gallon, 100 percent biodiesel is currently just a little bit cheaper than a gallon of diesel; the day has come for us to look at this as a new crop for us," she said.
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