Tenino Boasts Prospects in Meeting With Congresswoman

In a meeting with officials from the county, city and Chehalis Tribe last week, newly-elected U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez heard about Tenino’s current and aspiring cultural and economic assets, including a soon-to-be-established agricultural business and industrial park on the site of a former ranch just outside the downtown area.

Owned by the city, the development’s official name will be the “Southwest Washington Regional Agricultural Business & Innovation Park.” Among other tenants, it’s set to host a slaughtering business, which Tenino Mayor Wayne Fournier said would bolster the entire region’s ability to produce local meat. Beef farmers in the area, he said, are accustomed to visiting Eastern Washington for slaughters that meet current standards.

The park will also have an office for the Thurston Economic Development Council (EDC), which has been a partner in the project. EDC staff said groundbreaking on the park should start in the spring.

Further, EDC Director Aslan Meade said the park will be in alignment with the needs of counties abutting Thurston, including Lewis and Grays Harbor. The neighboring communities have made gentlemen’s agreements not to invest in competing ventures, he said, which extends to inner-county developers such as the Port of Olympia.

Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania County, in her freshman term, has been appointed to the House committees on agriculture and small business. With her rural roots and background as an owner of an auto repair shop in Portland, the Stone City’s prospects seem right up her alley. To Fournier’s delight, she noted she has family members buried in Tenino’s cemetery.

After going through their hopes and dreams for the future, the officials all strapped into a city van as the mayor sped off for the industrial park’s location. They later toured the Sandstone Distillery in a meeting with county officials.

Video clips of that meeting and conversations with Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders can be found on The Chronicle’s Facebook page.

Read more about the park, which was initially set to be up and running by 2020, on the EDC’s page at https://thurstonedc.com/tenino-readies-for-regional-agricultural-business-park/.