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Pend Oreille County has been backing the wrong horse when it comes to economic development.
The county has two alternatives in resourcing an organization to promote economic development: pool its resources with Stevens and Ferry Counties in the Tri County Economic Development District (TEDD) or pay more for less with a local economic development council. Our county commissioners picked the loser. Last week’s announcement in this paper that TEDD had earned a $12 million grant for rural high-speed internet —none of which will go to POC because our commissioners rejected joining TEDD—highlighted the disparity between TEDD’s quantifiable successes and our EDC’s quantifiable failures. In contrast, our EDC has managed to destroy our county’s credibility with the state and potential business partners. The EDC squandered $300,000 in debt the county now owes to the state after failing to recoup a state grant it spent on the failed silicon smelter project even though HiTest Sands/PacWest had clearly breached its contract with the EDC in mid-2020. Then they duplicitously applied for a state grant, allegedly to restart the paper mill, even though the application specified that the money would be used to upgrade the electrical system of the bitcoin mining facility that has taken over the site. The state, unsurprisingly, rejected that grant. In February, the EDC asked the county for more money for a “Clean Energy” committee led by employees and surrogates of Bitmain/Allrise, which the New York Times reported is one of the top ten carbon emitters of crypto miners. Finally, the regional representative from the State Department of Commerce recently told the county commissioners that the state wanted to support regional, multi-county projects, not requests from lone county EDCs. The recent resignation of EDC director provides opportunity to make a better choice and get more for less with TEDD. Learn more about TEDD here: Home Page • Tri County Economic Development District (tricountyedd.com)
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