Lessons from Malden teach volumes about how to strengthen community resilience

Monday, 02 August 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared on the Washington State Department of Commerce website on July 31, 2021.

Commerce work with local leaders in town decimated by wildfire reveals new approaches to better serve communities in crisis

Imagine feeling the scorching heat as you stand, stranded on the nearest small patch of green alfalfa, helpless against flames consuming the house on your family’s homestead settled generations ago. Or feeling a tightening knot in the pit of your stomach as you rush to the engulfed homes and businesses of your neighbors, making sure everyone is safe from the wildfire swallowing buildings whole. Imagine, then immediately shifting gears to lead rebuilding the devastated community, all while your own family is among those who lost everything.

That was reality for the current town mayor Dan Harwood and volunteer firefighter and town councilmember Scott Hokonson last September when the Babb Road fire roared through the rural town of Malden, Washington and destroyed 80 percent of its homes and buildings in a matter of hours. The small community of fewer than 300 residents sits among the rolling hills and fields of Washington’s Palouse, about 40 miles south of Spokane.

Horse in a pasture against background of green rolling hills in Malden, WA
Less than 300 residents call tiny Malden, Washington home. The town is nestled in the green, rolling hills of the Palouse about 40 miles south of Spokane. The Babb Road wildfire erased 80% of the buildings in this quiet rural community in a matter of hours.

Harwood, Hokonson and other local leaders and teams of dedicated individuals, have been working nonstop in their efforts to rebuild and come back even stronger. That effort has also challenged state agencies to rethink what it means to serve a community in crisis.

Community needs run the gamut, small to large, simple to complex

Immediate needs following a disaster are typically clear — food, shelter, water, communication and power restoration. Then what? What about the future? The extent of the damage in the community was near total, requiring extensive ongoing long-term recovery assistance.

For months, the president’s approval for a federal disaster declaration was delayed in Washington DC, leaving the entire community wondering if or when they could access recovery funds and resources for the town and its families and businesses. This put even more pressure on state and local government agencies, led by the state’s Emergency Management Division and Commerce’s Energy Emergency Management Director, to mobilize crisis response and support for the residents of Malden and neighboring Pine City.

Following the initial wildfire response, as the community looks towards recovery, Commerce Director Lisa Brown said the first step is simple but frequently overlooked — listening. She said all too often, well-meaning agencies show up to the rescue with a standard toolkit of services and funding in hand. Communities are unique, and this one-size-fits-all solution isn’t always what a community actually needs.

“Plenty of people are willing to step up and help, but coordination is the heavy lift,” said Commerce Director Lisa Brown. “We were able to embed with the community and listen carefully to their needs. Sorting out the processes for getting what they need is something local leaders very often just don’t have the capacity to track down and do in the midst of such chaos.”

Connections more important than funding

Commerce’s Community Engagement Team arrived in Malden and met with local leaders led by Mayor Harwood and Hokonson in his role as Long-term Recovery Project Director.

“It’s important to build the relationship — one-way communication is not what they need,” said Commerce’s Community Outreach Specialist Julia Havens who serves in the northeastern part of the state. “We didn’t come in with pre-conceived notions and try to do things right away. We started slow and kept showing up.”

With such overwhelming needs, it became clear that the question of “what can I do to be helpful” would keep changing.

Hokonson expressed that the community “will take whatever you have to offer, whenever you’re ready to offer it.”

Helping the local recovery leadership team map and track their myriad needs and then organize around finding the right resources was key. Small town leaders wear multiple hats under normal circumstances, so the strain in a situation like this is overwhelming. Commerce brought together “tech teams” to address everything from housing to broadband to water infrastructure with inter-agency partners.

Some needs, such as emergency housing and communications, were straightforward. Shortly after the fire, Commerce’s Community Services and Housing Division identified funds for emergency rental assistance, and the Washington Broadband Office jumped in to negotiate with private internet service providers to get and keep the community connected.

Other essential needs continue to pop up daily amid the destruction.

When the call came “we need highway signs,” Commerce connected the town with regional transportation officials to take the lead.

Every small victory keeps the team encouraged.

“They will have a replacement flag at the post office, a new outgoing mailbox installed and now a new nearby post office is in the works. These wins help the community realize the sense of place and they matter,” recalls Havens.

Rebuilding for resilience — planning ahead to be prepared

Dozens of federal and state agencies, nonprofit and faith-based organizations and other groups have come to the table to help strengthen the community. One of those organizations is the Washington State Public Works Board, a leading member of the infrastructure “tech team” of experts involved in the ongoing recovery work.

Malden’s water system had been severely damaged in the fire, and private wells in the community were contaminated by ash and debris.

The Public Works Board was able to use its statutory flexibility to adopt a new policy to expand the funding limit of its emergency program in the case of catastrophic events, and took action to do so at their April meeting. This new policy also provided the Board with latitude to approve up to 100% grant funding to requests meeting this criteria.

As a result, Malden applied for $3.7 million in grant funding to drill a new town well, connect the private wells that had been contaminated to the system, and install additional water mains and fire hydrants to provide and increase fire protection. The board awarded full funding on May 7, Mayor Harwood signed the contract days later, and the required review processes began the next day. Completion of this project will ensure adequate water resources, public health and safety, preserve property values and support economic revitalization.

Public Works Board Chair Kathryn Gardow said, “The measure of any community is the way it handles adversity. Few towns have been tested as harshly as Malden, and their resolve and passion to rebuild after this devastating fire is clear. The Public Works Board is proud to stand with the town of Malden as it rebuilds and transitions to a brighter future and look forward to seeing Malden rebuilt better than ever.”

One wrinkle in the funding remained. In order for the funding to be used, state law requires the municipality to have an updated critical areas ordinance (CAO) in place. Malden’s CAO was last updated in 2007. Commerce connected its growth management services staff with town clerk Micki Harnois to work collaboratively on expedited completion of the new ordinance.

“Here’s an example of a government agency starting from ‘how can we make this happen’ when it could have been ‘you’re out of compliance.’ When you’re working to help a small, local community be successful, the approach has to be totally different,” Havens said.

Mayor Dan Harwood and Town Clerk Micki Harnois

Mayor Dan Harwood and Town Clerk Micki Harnois are among the dedicated leaders working tirelessly to rebuild their community where so many families lost everything.

Another consequence of the fire was that it destroyed the built and natural identifiers for land parcel boundaries. Parcel boundaries are crucial for property owners as they begin rebuilding, as well as the town and county for land use planning efforts. In February this year, Commerce provided a $55,000 grant to help Malden conduct a land survey and plan for integrating the data into their future plans, which was recently completed.

“It’s been my privilege to meet Mayor Harwood and Micki. It’s absolutely an honor to play a very small part in the recovery of Malden, not just to rebuild but to build back better,” said Commerce’s Local Government Division Director Mark Barkley, who deployed numerous team members to assist the town.

Once the request for federal disaster declaration came through 151 days later on February 4, FEMA assistance finally became available, opening a cascade of other resources that had been dependent on the federal designation. Property testing and cleanup is underway, but the list of priority infrastructure projects is long. Local leaders press on, supported by many offers of assistance from philanthropic, religious and other community partners in addition to federal and state partners.

Other long-term efforts underway include looking at affordable housing throughout the Pine Creek area. Commerce’s community services and housing staff are working with community leaders to form a low and moderate-income housing roundtable to identify resources to help address long-term needs and build community resilience for the future.

Lessons learned will guide change

Commerce team members remain engaged in various aspects of the community’s long-term recovery.

“We showed up and we stayed; we were there week after week,” said Brown.

Havens, who is embedded with the town and local long-term recovery teams, continues to attend and support daily and weekly coordination calls.

“I am inspired by those who have lost so much and yet are completely dedicated to keep moving forward. I am doing everything that I can to continue helping them get those wins,” she said.

Beyond the short-term satisfaction of helping neighbors in need, Brown said the agency gained important insights that will guide future action.

The experience raised a set of questions about helping the next community in crisis. What needs to be there, ready to go? What can be done proactively to ensure community resilience in the face of disaster?

For example, Brown notes restrictions on state funding is a challenge. “We learned there’s just not much flexible funding out there that allows us to come in and cross program or agency boundaries to get the community what they need. That’s something we’ll be exploring with legislators.”

Above all, the experience reinforced for Commerce’s entire team and their many partners that there is no substitute for the power of ongoing, trusted relationships to strengthen communities.

New flagpole installed on the site of what will be the town’s new post office.

A fresh flag waves from a new flagpole where a new post office building will soon stand, seeming to signal that Malden is on the comeback trail.

Harwood, who calls himself a “glass half full” guy, is upbeat about his community’s future, in spite of challenges still ahead for the residents of this small town who have experienced the double trauma of COVID-19 and wildfire in one short year.

In addition to completing clean up of nearly every property, construction of new water and large scale septic systems and acquisition of two new fire trucks, Harwood is bullish on opportunities that will come with the town’s future fiber-optic broadband infrastructure.

He likens the potential impact of broadband to that of rail coming to Malden in 1903. Once the Port of Whitman’s plan for connecting the community to high-speed internet is complete, Harwood envisions more folks opting for the slower pace, recreational opportunities and lower land prices of small town life in a beautiful place.

And for some who already call the town home, Harwood paints a picture of what it could mean. He thinks about training veterans struggling with PTSD to work from home, providing supplemental income, and more importantly, he said, bolstering a sometimes battered sense of self-worth.

Harwood is matter-of-fact: “Broadband changes lives.”

He also strikes a serious tone as he speaks about challenges still on the horizon, such as mental health capacity for people to be able to have a proper “debrief.” Neighbors need to talk with each other, he said, about what they went through and how they survived it, first the trauma of COVID and then the fire.

Havens and others continue to stand side-by-side with local leaders as they navigate these and other emerging needs on the road to recovery.

“Commerce is the one of the best kept secrets,” Harwood offered. “I can’t name them all, but these people are ingrained in Malden. I can’t say enough about what all the support means for our community.”

Investment deals in Idaho exceeded $5.2 billion in 2020; Kootenai companies see increase despite pandemic

Tuesday, 25 May 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Spokesman Review on May 21, 2021. By Amy Edelen [email protected](509) 459-5581

 

Kootenai County companies saw an uptick in investment despite the pandemic last year, according to a recent report by the Idaho Technology Council.

The council’s 2020 Idaho Deal Flow report, released earlier this week, tracks private funding, public market transactions and mergers and acquisitions.

North Idaho had 10 company mergers and acquisitions and 26 private investment deals last year totaling $164.3 million, according to the report.

Companies in Kootenai County garnered more than $67.7 million in funding from investors last year.

Ryan Arnold, director of regional entrepreneurial strategy at North Idaho College, said Thursday that 2020 was an interesting year for North Idaho’s business community.

At the onset of the pandemic, the region’s startup activity was expected to decrease, but the opposite occurred as more entrepreneurs took risks and developed business ideas, Arnold said.

“We saw an uptick in entrepreneurship activity,” he said.

North Idaho is now on the map as a viable area to obtain funding and conduct business, in part, because of its proximity to Spokane, Seattle and Boise, Arnold said.

“Overall, it feels like a good time to be here,” Arnold said.

Statewide, the number of investment deals dropped slightly to 151 last year, compared with 154 in 2019. However, the overall amount of capital invested increased to $5.2 billion last year from $4.4 billion in 2019.

Coeur d’Alene-based Tractor Beverage Co. last year was among the state’s top 10 private placement deals, a round of investment through a private offering . The specialty soda company completed an $18.5 million round of venture funding from investors in 2020.

“Our equity raise completed in April 2020 has enabled Tractor to continue its growth in the industry and helped us achieve a 475% increase in revenues in 2020,” Dan Kerker, CFO of Tractor Beverage Co., said in an email.

Seven Kootenai County-based companies raised more than $1 million in funding last year. GarageSkins Inc. is one of those companies, raising $1.2 million in December in a deal led by Central Texas Angel Network.

GarageSkins founder Rick Medlen moved from Oregon to Liberty Lake last year and is leasing 60,000 square feet of space at 5405 W. Riverbend Ave. in Post Falls for a new production facility, with plans to take the company’s garage door overlay system to market in July.

Medlen developed a concept of thin, wood veneers adhered to lightweight foam that attaches to metal garage doors via strong earth magnets, transforming the appearance to high-end wood carriage doors without need for alterations.

“I have found North Idaho to be incredibly welcoming to new businesses,” said Medlen, adding the business community has been supportive of the company’s production facility.

It’s been typical to see late-stage funding for North Idaho startups, meaning established companies are receiving larger amounts of investments, Medlen said.

“Companies showing true growth and great year-over-year increases can expect a ready investor market,” he said.

Recordings of recent INP webinars now online

Wednesday, 03 March 2021 / Published in News + Updates

 

Now available in our Speaker Presentation Library, our recent webinars have been recorded:

INP 2021 Winter Webinar: Retail & Restaurant Recovery

Heather Thomson – It’s a Tall Order
Josh Wade -Hospitality Survival Strategies

Webinar Recording—> Click here!

*************

INP 2020 Winter Webinar:The Importance of Digital Inclusion

Monica Babine: Setting the Stage
Russ Elliott: State Programs & Resources (WA)
Eric Forsch: State Programs & Resources (ID)
Mike Kennedy: A Provider’s Perspective
Debra Hansen: Broadband Action Teams: How to Engage Your Community Utilizing the BAT Model

Broadband Action Team (BAT) Information Sheets

Webinar Recording—>Click here!

************

INP 2020 Fall Webinar: 2020 Regional Economic Outlook

Sam Wolkenhauer: Inland Northwest Labor Market Trends (ID)
Ajsa Suljik: Inland Northwest Labor Market Trends (WA)
John Mitchell: 2020 Regional Economic Outlook-COVID, Zooming & Resilience

Webinar Recording—> Click here!

New residents are just one factor in rise in Spokane home values

Monday, 01 February 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Journal of Business on January 14, 2021. By Patrick Jones, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy & Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University.

Supply side said to have greater effect as listings fall short of local demand

Ever thought it’s those out-of-towners who have driven up housing prices here recently? You probably aren’t alone.

After all, the median house price for resale has climbed from approximately $284,000 to $330,000 over the past four quarters.

That $46,000 represents a 16% bump, a steep one for buyers. Spokane’s median price, while still considerably lower than the state value, cruised upward at a slightly higher pace than Washington’s median, which rose 14% over the past 12 months. (Supporting data is available on Eastern Washington University’s Spokane Trends website.)

Prices reflect many forces, both demand and supply. The key drivers of housing demand are income, financing, and population. Incomes here have moved upward in the past few years, but at a rate not too far from historical rates. For sure, mortgage rates have plummeted, leading some homeowners to consider trading up and some renters to consider buying.

Population growth, too, has surged over the past four years, relative to the past two decades. And like most western U.S. cities, Spokane’s population has expanded largely due to migration.

Local families continue to keep OB-GYNs busy, but in the larger scheme of things, it is migration that moves the population needle. For example, from April 1, 2019, to April 1, 2020, the number of heads in Spokane County rose by 7,350. Of those, 85% can be attributable to net migration.

Net migration accounts for the difference between those who move in and those who move out. Over the past five years, the number of county residents here due to net migration has been slightly more than 25,000. That’s a large jump from the prior five years.

Has it been just me who has seen more out-of-state license plates on Division Street or Interstate 90 since the pandemic struck? Observations from behind the wheel are not optimal research techniques. Thankfully, we can look at a public data series: driver’s license surrenders tracked by the Washington state Department of Licensing.

The surprise result for the first 11 months of the year: out-of-state license surrenders have dropped. From January through November the Department of Licensing reports about 7,700 new residents from outside of our state exchanging driver’s licenses. That total is down from 9,160 and 10,830 for the first eleven months of 2019 and 2018, respectively. So much for casual empiricism.

In retrospect, that shouldn’t be too surprising. The early months of the pandemic’s outbreak put a hard stop to mobility in this country.

A comparison of license surrenders in the second quarter of this year with the second quarter of 2019 is startling: 104 this year versus 2,360 last year.

Undoubtedly, the low numbers from this year are due to the closure of state offices for a good part of the quarter. Yet the third quarter, when obstacles to reregistering ostensibly were removed, didn’t compensate for the prior quarter. Licensing data show a gain of little more than 200.

In sum, the continued discovery by those from out-of-state, so strong in the recent years, shifted gears in 2020.

Yet, inflows might still be strong from movers within the state. The U.S. Census tracks annual flows from county to county in the U.S, compiled over five-year intervals. The most recent period is 2014-2018. It clearly shows the flow of Washingtonians to our county to be considerable.

Over that interval, the ratio of new residents to Spokane from Washingtonians to those outside of the state was just slightly below even. That is, a few more new residents have recently come from outside the state than from the other 38 counties in Washington.

It might be the case that the pandemic has changed that relationship, making it relatively easier for residents of Evergreen State counties to move here than those from hundreds of miles away.

In fact, among the top 10 U.S. counties contributing to in-migration here over the 2014-2018, period, seven were in Washington. Ranked by size of their flows, these were: Snohomish, King, Benton, Grant, Pierce, Stevens, and Lincoln counties.

Of the two out-of-state counties, one, not surprisingly, is neighboring Kootenai County, and the other, perhaps surprisingly, is Maricopa, Arizona. Though not a county, Asia as a whole rounded out the top 10.

Most of us have heard anecdotes about neighbors or friends of friends who have moved here from the central Puget Sound area. Many of the accounts describe the new residents as remote workers. That arrangement may well be part of the new normal for our economy and in particular for tech workers.

If so, these new neighbors symbolize a hope held by many in the economic development community: Someday Spokane will benefit from an arbitrage of labor from high-cost to lower-cost urban centers.

It is this observer’s hunch that current movement from other Washington counties has mirrored the decline of out-of-state new residents in 2020.

As a consequence, fingers can’t be pointed at Seattleites for the dramatic run-up in housing costs. Until we have data for 2020, we simply won’t know.

Attempts to explain housing prices solely to increased demand, however, miss half of the equation, perhaps the greater half. The supply side must be considered. Here, as has been widely noted, the offering of Spokane homes has been lowest on recent record.

The Washington State Real Estate Research Center, source for some of the housing data on Spokane Trends, tracks the number of listings by quarter in the county. For Q3 2020, the most recent quarter for which data are available, the count stood at 558. Compare that with 1,158 listings in Q3 2019, or 2,562 listings in Q3 2015.

Population has grown, incomes have grown, financing has gotten much more favorable, yet supply has diminished. Clearly this is a textbook case for rising prices.

The supply of homes (listings) rests on two sources: the number of local households selling their homes and the number of new homes coming onto the market.  Spokane Trends doesn’t track the latter, but does follow residential building permits, typically viewed as a leading indicator. (See indicator 2.3.3.) The graph clearly shows a peak in 2016, followed by a decline of 500 permits into 2019.

The reasons behind the decline are numerous.

They include: difficulty in securing land, the cost of developing lots, a tight labor pool in the building trades, and the rising costs of construction, especially lumber. Some of these forces might see some relief relatively soon, but others will take longer to resolve.

That is, unless hundreds of current Spokanites decided to sell and move to a different place. That doesn’t seem to be in the offing now. The pandemic has kept local residents place-bound, too. Once our community reaches a safe threshold of vaccinations, I don’t expect a big outflow. Continued low supply, growing popularity from outside the region, continued low financing costs, and no significant rise in departures imply rising home prices for the foreseeable future.

Port of Lewiston Wind Turbine Shipping Project

Wednesday, 06 January 2021 / Published in News + Updates

For the last few months, the Port of Lewiston has become an important transportation center for wind turbine components being barged up the Columbia and Snake rivers. After being barged from Port of Longview, in Washington, to the Port of Lewiston, the components will be trucked to Alberta, Canada.

Because the Port of Lewiston is at the end of the navigable Columbia Snake River System, it serves as a transportation corridor for commodities exported from Idaho or cargo imported to the interior of the U.S. and Canada.

The wind turbines are shipped in pieces to the Port’s dock, which was expanded as part of a 2013 capital investment project made possible by federal and state grants, and then trucked north using U.S. Highway 95 to the Canadian border. The wind turbine components will be assembled to make 42 new wind turbines.

The Port of Lewiston is an advocate for renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric power as well as wind power. Wind turbines work to harness the power of the wind and turn it into energy. When the wind blows, the turbine’s blades spin clockwise, capturing energy. This triggers the main shaft of the wind turbine, connected to a gearbox to spin. The gearbox sends that wind energy to a generator, converting it to electricity. Wind power generation helps to create a clean, renewable way to power our world.

Both blades and tower components have been barged and stored on Port property before being trucked to Canada.

126 turbine blades and 168 tower components have been shipped on 21 barges of this project.

This project is important to so many, especially during this COVID-19 time. The crew that is shipping these turbine components was mobilized to our area and is helping to fuel the local economy. The Port of Lewiston is a public organization serving the citizens of Nez Perce County as an economic development district, intermodal transportation center and facilitator of international trade.

“The success of this inland shipping route will foster future opportunities for the Port of Lewiston and the Valley as a whole,” General Manager, David Doeringsfeld, commented.

 

 

 

URM grocery purchases old Northwest Bedding facilities on West Plains, adds clients on coast

Monday, 21 December 2020 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Journal of Business on October 22nd, 2020. . Written by Natasha Nellis

Spokane-based wholesale cooperative URM Stores Inc. has purchased the former Northwest Bedding complex on the West Plains to accommodate ongoing growth, as the organization expands west of the Cascade Mountains.

Located at 6102 S. Hayford Road, just west of the Amazon Fulfillment Center and north of West Plains Building Supply, the newly acquired property includes two warehouses with nearly 140,000 square feet of floor space—one with 117,900 square feet of space and the other with 16,000 square feet.

The structures will be used as additional staging and storage space, says Mike Winger, vice president of store development.

“It gives us some flexibility to better utilize the main URM facility,” he says.

A commercial change-of-use application on file with Spokane County shows tenant improvements in both structures are valued at about $12.4 million. URM purchased the 13.8-acre property for $3.7 million in September, according to Spokane County Assessor’s Office records.

The recently acquired Hayford Road structures previously operated as a boat manufacturer, Sun Runner, from 1977 to 1991 before transitioning into a Northwest Bedding manufacturing facility, says James Black III, Realtor with NAI Black who handled the transaction. The property has been vacant for roughly two years.

The expansion comes on the heels of a double-digit growth in revenues during the most recent fiscal year.

In its 2020 fiscal year ended July 31, the company experienced double-digit sales growth and closed out the year at a consolidated annual revenue of $1.3 billion, up 13% compared with 2019 revenue, Winger says.

Much of that growth is attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people cook at home and drive up sales at grocery stores, which in turn drives up sales at the wholesale cooperative, he says.

“The way the virus has impacted the restaurant trade has really changed people’s eating habits, and a lot of our retailers have experienced significant sales growth because people are now going to the grocery store and buying a lot of that center-store grocery product,” he contends.

Winger says it’s likely the new facilities will operate with a limited staff, as the facility is intended to be used as a temporary dry food storage facility. However, he adds, the significant growth and demand the company has seen this year has led to over 80 new hires at the URM headquarters, and the company is looking to add 30 to 35 additional employees before year’s end.

URM currently has over 670 employees.

In addition to eliminating periodic expenses related to off-site storage during the holiday seasons, the new facilities give URM expanded storage capabilities that Winger says will allow the company to better serve its growing client base in the large Pacific Northwest metropolitan areas.

“With the growth of our company, we’ve been pushing our trade area farther west,” says Winger. “Now, we service grocers over in the Seattle and Portland area.”

He adds that as more retailers are added to the company’s roster, the demand for specialty products could increase. The new facility will help to accommodate those products that the company headquarters, at 7511 N. Freya, currently doesn’t now.

Further, he says the grocery industry is continuously evolving, with new products being added every day, organic products growing in popularity and diversity, and ethnic foods growing in demand.

The new space will give the company the flexibility to accommodate those needs in the future as the company’s retailer base diversifies, he contends.

During the holiday season, the distributor often rents additional space to store the candy and other holiday treats the member companies only stock seasonally, Winger explains, so having the additional space will cut that expense.

The West Plains facilities currently are undergoing tenant improvements to ensure that the buildings are up to date with code requirements, he says. The buildings also aren’t connected to city water or sewer systems, and instead operate on a private well, so the company is inspecting them to ensure the life safety systems are operational, he adds.

Winger says improvements are slated to be completed by spring 2021.

“We have, for some time, been looking to see how we could expand our existing warehouse facility. We’re somewhat limited because we have the railroad property to the west of us and we have streets on either side,” he says of the company’s headquarters on Freya Avenue.

Much of the planned work is cosmetic, adds Winger. Additionally, the structure’s roof will be replaced, portions of the steel panel wall will be repaired, and the loading docks will need to be repaired or replaced to be properly sized for the company’s trucks, he says.

URM’s flagship distribution center on Freya Street is 680,000 square feet. According to the company’s website, its distribution center receives over 400 inbound truckloads weekly and ships over 450 outbound truckloads a week.

Its headquarters were established in Spokane in 1926. Since, the company has steadily expanded its space, with its last addition occurring in 2014 when the company added 77,000 square feet to its perishable groceries space.

URM services members in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Its offerings include dry groceries, frozen food, ice cream, deli foods, dairy products, fresh meat, general merchandise, and health and beauty aids.

The 99-year-old cooperative is a member-owned food distributor to grocers that include Center Place Market, Family Foods, Harvest Foods, Huckleberry’s Natural Market, Rosauers Supermarkets, Super 1 Foods, The Markets LLC, Town & Country Markets Inc., Yoke’s Fresh Market, and Northwest Grocers.

The company also provides supplies to two URM Cash & Carry stores.

Next year URM Stores will celebrate its 100th year, says Winger.

Tamarack Aerospace expands Sandpoint facility

Sunday, 25 October 2020 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared on October 8, 2020 in the Journal of Business. Written by Natasha Nellis.

Company to boost sales, engineering jobs this year

Tamarack Aerospace Group Inc. is continuing its rapid expansion, having nearly tripled its space at its Sandpoint headquarters.

The company has added 3,500 square feet of office space and an additional hangar to its 14,000 square feet of space at 2021 Industrial Drive, near the southern edge of the Sandpoint Airport. The addition of a third hangar, which company President Jacob Klinginsmith estimates is about 5,600 square feet, brings the company’s total hangar space to roughly 23,000 square feet.

“The big-picture objective with the expansion is making room for R&D,” he says. “As a technology company our intent and plan is to take our game changing technology and do it on other platforms.”

The company manufactures and installs active winglets, which are designed to be attached to wingtips to boost fuel efficiency by increasing lift and reducing drag.

Currently, the winglets are designed to be installed on Cessna CitationJets, but Klinginsmith says Tamarack is exploring expanding the product to fit other types of aircraft, from the CitationJets up to Boeing airplanes.

With the addition of more research and development space, the company also plans to hire five sales and engineering employees, with the expectation of hiring an additional five engineers by year-end, according to a company press release.

Tamarack has 27 employees.

Klinginsmith declines to disclose sales figures, but says he expects this year’s sales will be up compared with last year.

“The economy has really increased the demand for charter flights,” he says. “People are looking for less contact with others, so our charter customer base is growing. People are looking at adding winglets to get more out of their aircraft.”

He adds that the increasing popularity of charter flights has bolstered the company’s sales.

Earlier this year, the company also established its first international outpost at the London-Oxford Airport. Tamarack partnered with Jet Maintenance International, an airline-based asset management company based in Alexandria, Virginia, to lease an 18,000-square-foot hangar on the airport property.

Spokane-based Spiceology raises $4.7 million in Series A funding

Thursday, 01 October 2020 / Published in News + Updates
This article first appeared in The Spokesman Review on Friday September 25, 2020. Written by Amy Edelen. 

Spokane-based Spiceology has secured a $4.7 million round of Series A funding, led by grocery and retail executive Ty Bennett with participation by Kickstart Funds III and IV, a group of angel investors and the Cowles Co., which publishes The Spokesman-Review.

“I have been an investor in Spiceology since the early days and had the privilege of watching the company elevate above the thousands of small spice purveyors in the market,” Ty Bennett, founder and former CEO of Jacent, said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing my retail and grocery experience to the table to help Spiceology continue to delight customers and find new ways of meeting customers where they shop.”

The privately held spice company will use the funding to bring process automation to its SpiceLab operations, and advance its sales and marketing efforts. The SpiceLab is where spice blends are formulated and packaged with the company’s trademarked “periodic table of flavor” labels, according to a company release.

Series A funding is the first round of investment funding after seed funding. It typically involves venture capital firms and is for startups that have established growth.

Spiceology, founded in 2013, was recently named to Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the nation. It ranked 1,081 on the list with a three-year revenue growth of 423%.

The company has steadily grown its operations by creating recipes and how-to videos for customers as well as collaborating with chefs and food influencers on new product lines.

At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Spiceology experienced an uptick in spice sales as more people began preparing meals at home.

Bennett has joined Spiceology’s board of directors. The company also hired Roger Landrum as senior vice president of global supply chain and operations, the release said.

Landrum was formerly the senior director of supply chain, risk management and procurement at Litehouse Foods, a Sandpoint-based $300 million salad dressing and herb manufacturer.

“Spiceology’s formula is focusing on quality and innovation at scale. By doing so, we’re bringing life into a very tired category that’s sorely in need of a fresh alternative,” Chip Overstreet, president and CEO of Spiceology, said in a statement.

“There’s nothing more core to our lives than eating, and we bring smiles to people’s faces when they realize how much better every meal can be with a simple sprinkle of Spiceology goodness.”

Colville’s cross laminated timber manufacturer will help put region on CLT map

Monday, 14 September 2020 / Published in News + Updates

This article originally appeared on KXLY.com by Derek Deis

COLVILLE, Wash. — Buildings made with cross laminated timber are already commonplace in Europe, but it’s a relatively new concept here. So to say Russ Vaagen, whose family has owned Vaagen Brothers Lumber for more than 70 years, is excited about his new venture would be an understatement.

“We could put this as the mass timber capital of North America eventually,” said Vaagen, the CEO and founder of Vaagen Timbers.

Cross laminated timber is an eco-friendly, wood panel product made from gluing layers of lumber together. Vaagen says it’s kind of like a Lego set.

“We’re actually putting together a kit that a builder can do very rapidly, high quality and goes together the same way every time,” explained Vaagen. “And so, it’s going to speed construction time up, it’s going to provide a much higher quality build, we’re going to be much more energy efficient.”

Vaagen Timbers can build its CLT panels up to 60 feet wide with varying depths. And Vaagen says it’s one-fifth the weight of steel and concrete with the same structural strength.

“So we’ll have a lighter, more nimble building. It’ll also be much better equipped to handle seismic shifts.”

And Vaagen says it can be used for all sorts of applications, including, “Mid-rise structures for commercial buildings, apartments and even homes.”

CLT panels start with pieces of lumber on the finger jointer machine.

“We take knives and we make a set of fingers. And they do just as it says, they joint together. And then we use pressure and an adhesive to tie those together,” said Vaagen.

After the wood is planed, it goes to the layup line, where Vaagen says those pieces of lumber get turned into panels.

“So we take four feet of wood, we lift it up all together, put it on the conveyor, goes and gets a layer of glue.”

A set of vacuums then lifts and places each additional layer.

“Sets it on top of that glued layer 90 degrees to the other layer, comes back through the glue, gets another long layer set back on it.”

The now heat cured panels then get cut by giant saws on the CNC line.

“We’re cleaning the cuts, we’re making the connections to go panel to panel if we’re doing a wall or a floor system,” said Vaagen.

After sanding, they’re ready to be shipped to customers.

One of the first places you’ll be able to see Vaagen Timbers’ CLT put to use is in Spokane’s Perry District, where Blockhouse – Life is building a 14 unit modular structure using CLT.”

“So we’ll make boxes basically that can be repeatable, but they can be customized,” said Vaagen. “And it’s modular. So ultimately, you could pick it up and move it and put it someplace else.”

Vaagen says Spokane, and Washington as a whole, are poised to be leaders in CLT and mass timber products. And that has him excited about Vaagen Timbers’ potential for growth.

“There’s just no losers. Everybody wins. And we’re going to be offering incredible structures for people to build with for years to come.”

Spokane company leads with virtual solution to teach children with autism

Monday, 13 July 2020 / Published in News + Updates

Long before the era of COVID-19, Laura Kasbar was a Spokane mother who merely wanted to find a way to address her children’s autism.

Almost by chance, she noticed that video lessons would help, particularly with a child who doctors had declared would never speak.

Nine years later, in 2011, her son Max was mainstreamed, and her Gemiini Systems, still based in Spokane, has become a worldwide leader in online distance learning for people with autism, Down syndrome, dyslexia, speech delay, stroke and other issues.

Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, Gemiini has seen “an avalanche” of interest as families and school districts seek virtual solutions to real-life challenges of learning from home, Kasbar said from her home in Southern California.

The company, with about 50 employees, is run by her son Nicholas out of the Holley- Mason Building in downtown Spokane. After an initial adjustment, Gemiini has adapted to a surge in business.

Gemiini has opened its certification program to professionals and has waived the $490 fee for certification.

Gemiini is also offering schools and clinics the use of its system at no cost as long as they agree to submit the cost of the program to Medicaid.

Gemiini has proven to be a valuable solution for special education administrators, who are struggling to navigate this crisis to continue to meet the needs of special needs students and families.

For many children, “this can be the only link to therapy,” Kasbar said. “And now with COVID everyone is on that boat.

“Our team has been able to get to work immediately. Our subscription base has increased dramatically.”

Gemiini – the unique spelling is Kasbar’s tribute to her autistic twins, Max and Anastasia – was the product of Kasbar’s yearslong search for a solution.

Nicholas Kasbar is ready for a busy day at Gemiini Educational Systems located in the Holley-Mason Building in downtown Spokane. Gemiini Educational Systems, which Kasbar co-founded with his mother Laura, is a video-focused system to teach autistic children. Business is booming for Gemiini since the COVID-19 pandemic sent students home for school.

It was in 2001 that Kasbar recalled walking into a room in her Spokane home, saw all six of her children lined up in front of the television and “couldn’t really tell which were the autistic ones.”

At that time, conventional wisdom dictated the television should be turned off if autistic children were nearby. But that experience told Kasbar video was the answer.

She and her husband Brian had noticed that young Max wouldn’t make eye contact with them but would interact with the television.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to get my mouth on the TV,’ ” Kasbar said.

That night, they made one-minute videos of a cup and Barney, the TV dinosaur.

“It was a close-up of my mouth saying the word ‘Barney’ next to the actual Barney and then saying the word ‘cup’ next to a cup. We did three sets in a row,” Kasbar said.

That night, after watching several times from his highchair while eating, Max made his biggest breakthrough.

Kasbar held up a cup and he said “cup,” his first word – 3 years and 8 months of age.

During the next decade, and with the help of her oldest son, Nicolas – who also had been on the autism spectrum – Kasbar developed the video program.

In 2012, thanks to funding from the Spokane Angel Alliance and Inland Imaging, Gemiini was launched.

Backed by studies from four universities, Gemiini serves 30,000 clients in 40 countries.

Its use of discrete video modeling, which presents only a specific piece of audio information, was showed by a Portland State University study to be 300% more effective than standard video modeling.

Kasbar was so inspired by the success of her program that she shared her experiences in a book, “Embracing the Battle: Secrets of Victory from a Warrior Mom.”

Closer to home, Gemiini has worked with former NFL star and Spokane native Mark Rypien to develop an application to address suicide prevention.

The goal, Rypien said last fall, is to connect circles of friends of persons at risk so they can better monitor their state of mind.

Lately, the main focus has been reaching children who have been isolated by COVID-19.

“It’s been pretty easy,” said Nicolas, who runs the Spokane headquarters. “After a few headaches, we’ve been able to keep going and helping people, and we’ve updated a lot of our instructions on Facebook Live to walk people through how our lessons work.”

Jim Allen can be reached at (509) 459-5437 or by email at [email protected].