The promise of 100-150 new jobs tempered by increasing traffic congestion in area
By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
A big chunk of West Plains property near the SR 902 interchange will soon have its carpet of weeds and brush replaced with a coating of concrete following the announcement last Thursday, June 23, that Caterpillar Logistics Services, Inc. plans to open a new parts distribution center on Hallett Road.
Cat Logistics, a wholly owned subsidiary of heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc., headquartered in Morton, Ill., will replace an existing 125,000 square foot facility in the Spokane Valley with a building some four times that size – 500,000 square feet – on land next to Peirone Produce.
Construction is scheduled to begin this summer with the facility operational sometime in 2012.
“The announcement today by Caterpillar is great news for our community,” chairman of the Spokane County Board of Commissioners Al French said in a statement from Caterpillar. “Bringing more jobs to this community is one of the County's highest priorities.” When completed the distribution center will employ 100-150 people.
A number of entities in both the private sector and state government, including Greater Spokane, Inc., Spokane County and the Washington State Department of Commerce all played a part in landing the facility that joins another similar distribution center that opened in Ohio earlier this year.
“I offer my congratulations to Spokane area leadership, who worked tirelessly to ensure the Caterpillar expansion happened in the Inland Northwest,” Washington State Gov. Chris Gregoire said.
The new facility is located within the Cheney School District, but efforts to reach Superintendent Larry Keller, who was away on vacation, were unsuccessful.
While there was much celebration over the news that more jobs were coming the area, there were concerns over what the center would do to the already crowded 902 interchange.
“It's obviously a great thing for Spokane County and the jobs they say they are going to create,” Medical Lake City Administrator Doug Ross said. “The concern I guess from the city standpoint would be the growing congestion at that intersection.”
Ross said that despite his community being a few miles away from the two-lane bridge that crosses the interstate, “We're no more removed from that than when we talk about the jail being located (along 902) and things like that.
“It's pretty tough as it is the main entrance and exit from the city of Medical Lake. Even though Medical Lake is another six miles to the west of I-90 it's still obviously a concern. The last sort of thing that intersection needs is more truck traffic,” Ross said.
Ross is also concerned that should a proposed county jail be built it would “add chaos at shift changes like crazy.”
The Washington State Department of Transportation has similar concerns.
“We're going to work with Spokane County and whomever the developer is to look at traffic impacts when that time comes,” Transportation spokesman Al Gilson said. “It's too early to speculate on what, if any, changes are going to have to be made.”
Ross said he would have liked to have the facility been built inside the Medical Lake city limits, so that they could have got “the sales tax revenue. I'd be shouting from the highest rooftops.”
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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