Proposed $300,000 office building use in dispute

WILSON CREEK — A future port commissioner is urging residents to attend the next port meeting before he even takes office.

Stratford resident Sheldon Ralston, who won the election for Commissioner District No. 3 in November and will replace Derek Stevens in January, said the Port of Wilson Creek has approximately $300,000 for economic development at the Wilson Creek Airport.

Ralston is charging that two port commissioners — Gary Ribail and Stevens — and the port secretary want to spend $250,000 on a new 60-by-120-foot administrative building.

Ralston said the building "has no prospects of being leased to bring dollars into the port," and no cost-benefit ratio exists.

"They don't have any tenants," he said. "It's promoted kind of as a community center and apparently has little to do with the airport."

Ralston said he is working with Grant County to try and find out what Revised Code of Washington chapters the port is supposed to be operating under.

If a port district spends all its money "on something kind of moot," he said, when the opportunity does present itself and someone needs assistance setting up a structure, the port doesn't have the necessary funding available.

"It doesn't sound like good business to me," he said.

In an e-mail, Ralston said that many citizens of the port district are opposed to spending the money for the building, but the commission fails to listen. He added the project is being expedited before he takes office in January.

Ralston thinks he would be able to make changes when he takes office, noting that he and commissioner Ron Lesser are both on the conservative side when it comes to thinking about the future.

"I think the whole thing needs to be looked at," he said. "Why are we doing this? A port district really isn't in the business of community centers. They're supposed to be in the area of community development."

Ralston said that he is urging people to attend the meeting, taking place Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. in Wilson Creek City Hall "just so that the facts get out to the approximately 300 people supporting the port district in taxation," and noted that the port district boundary runs almost down to Moses Lake. "There are a lot of people with Moses Lake addresses that they have no idea what's going on."

"We have no office space, we have no meeting space area," Ribail explained when asked about the reasons for the building. He declined to respond to Ralston's comments.

"We just need to be doing the right thing," Ralston said. "It's (taxpayers') money and we need to spend it wisely. There's nothing wrong with having dollars in the bank. When the opportunity presents itself, that community has dollars to create new jobs, bring in employment and I think that (the port needs) a better working relationship of the city of Wilson Creek. That has not been the case in the past."

In January, a Washington State Auditor's Office accountability audit report found that the port district did not comply with the Open Public Meetings Act and was not able to provide evidence that all expenditures had been approved by its board of commissioners.