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I read with interest the announcement from the Port of Chehalis on Wednesday that Amazon wants to buy land to build an operations center that would employ between 500 and 1,000 workers.
Although people worry about the effect of such a center on traffic, Chehalis Industrial Park and Port of Chehalis members worked tirelessly to lobby for construction of the Labree Road interchange on Interstate 5 between Rush Road and 13th Avenue in Chehalis.
To be honest, when I snapped photos of the quiet interchange in 2013 while compiling the book, “Chehalis: A Can-Do Community: A History of the Chehalis Industrial Commission,” I couldn’t help but think it a bit elaborate for a small community.
But the late Gail Shaw, Buck Hubbert, John Alexander and others who served on the Chehalis Industrial Commission possessed the foresight to anticipate the need for the interchange that will keep much of the traffic from the new Amazon center off residential streets. They worked closely for decades with representatives from the city of Chehalis, the Port of Chehalis and Lewis County to lobby state and federal officials for the interchange.
“Traffic is not expected to be significantly impacted and impacts through the port industrial park will be supported by the existing dedicated overpass,” the port’s press release states.
According to the port, Amazon, working through developer CRG, will pay $9.32 million in a purchase and sale agreement for the 34-acre Rush Road property. The operations center is expected to generate up to $2.4 million in annual county tax revenue, according to the port.
“This development represents a significant economic investment in Lewis County and aligns with the port’s mission to grow and diversify the local economy while fostering high-quality job creation,” the port’s release states.
“Congrats to the entire Port of Chehalis team,” former Port of Chehalis Executive Director Randy Mueller posted on Facebook. “This one has been in the works a long time!”
The 18-member Chehalis Industrial Commission was privately financed, so it could extend roads, negotiate water connection extensions, and obtain permits for industrial projects without endless delays. Industrial park members spearheaded efforts to create the Port of Chehalis in 1986 as another partner focused on drawing investment and employers to the community.
Members of both the industrial commission and the port spent decades trying to persuade state and federal transportation officials to construct the Labree Road interchange off Interstate 5 leading into the industrial park, beginning in the 1970s. They worked with transportation officials on different designs through the years and raised money for studies to justify the need for the interchange serving 2,400 employees. The commission also raised money twice to pay 5 percent of the development costs of the overpass and interchange, according to the late Gail Shaw, who worked closely with me on the history book.
In the late 1990s, Lewis County obtained $6.3 million in federal transportation funding to begin design of the interchange, acquire rights-of-way, and prepare for construction. The state set aside $41.4 million in the spring of 2003 to widen I-5 from Exit 76 near 13th Street to Exit 72 at Napavine, and in 2004, the Federal Highway Administration approved $50 million for the Labree Road interchange. The project required a 20 percent local match.
Construction began in 2007, and the interchange opened in June 2009. At the time, the overpass seemed to me a bit like overkill without a lot of traffic. But Hubbert told me during an interview, “it was put in for future growth.”
And now that future growth is here. The interchange is likely to pay off with more trucks and employees using the interchange to access the new Amazon warehouse. And as the Chehalis Industrial Park and port develop more property, the interchange will prove even more important.
It’s too bad attempts to create an interchange for I-5 access at Reynolds Avenue or elsewhere north of Harrison Avenue haven’t panned out yet to draw truck traffic from Port of Centralia manufacturers away from the city’s residential and commercial streets.
Perhaps then the Centralia City Council wouldn’t have placed a temporary moratorium on construction of large distribution centers and warehouses over traffic congestion concerns as it did in September.
Speaking of Centralia, it’ll be interesting to see whether the Port of Centralia becomes more transparent under new leadership than it has been under Executive Director Kyle Heaton, who was fired from his $250,000-a-year job unanimously by port commissioners on Wednesday. Under his generous contract, Heaton, who has held the top port position since January 2001, can leave with a payout of at least $500,000 in taxpayer dollars.
Port Commissioner Kyle Markstrom described Heaton as “instrumental in driving economic development, attracting employees and expanding our community’s tax base.”
The commissioners didn’t wait to see if Heaton could work with newly elected Commissioner Ally Pickard, who criticized him during her successful campaign to oust incumbent Commissioner Julie Shaffley in the November election. Instead, Markstrom said they terminated Heaton to avoid distraction from their core mission of job creation and business development. During the campaign, Shaffley said that under Heaton’s leadership, the port increased assets from $8.5 million to $42 million and reduced debt from $7.5 million to $1 million.
The Port of Centralia should consider reaching out to Mueller to see if he’ll take the top spot as transparency seemed important to him when he oversaw the Port of Chehalis from 2014 to 2021. And transparency in government is crucial.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com
