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JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 4 months AGO
The last few houses are in the finishing stages at Sageview Estates, a new housing development in George that will bring almost 30 new homes to the small town.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
A kitchen under construction at Sageview Estates in George. According to the Sageview Estates website, the development is offering eight floor plans with a variety options for buyers to choose from.
The 27 lots identified here make up the biggest housing development George has seen in a long time.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | June 9, 2023 1:30 AM
GEORGE — The new housing in George is almost finished.
“We had a 27-lot subdivision,” said Drew Scott, owner of CAD Homes LLC, which is building the houses. “We started last year and it's all sold out now. It went quick.”
27 houses may not seem like much, but in a town of around 800 people, that’s making a dent. The development, dubbed Sageview Estates, includes homes ranging from 1,003 to 2,110 square feet and are generally selling in the upper $200,000-lower $300,000 range, according to county records. The median home price in that part of Grant County in May was $460,000, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
“Boy, did it go quick,” said Chris Lacelle, the construction director for CAD who’s in charge of the George project. “It was a sweet turnaround for the community down there, and for CAD Homes. I mean, at one point we couldn't build them fast enough for the people. They were itching to get in some new houses, which was pretty cool to see.”
A development this size is unusual in George, said George Mayor Gerene Nelson.
“Over the last four years, there has been an uptick in some housing, individual building, but no major developments,” Nelson said.
“It was kind of a shocker to the city,” Lacelle said, chuckling. “People at the city building, when I started with about eight permits, I walked in (and) slammed them on the desk, and they were like, ‘Um, what do we do with eight?”
“You can drive through George and there won't be but one or two builds going on – maybe,” he added. “But as far as the development goes, there was there was no such thing.”
The last few houses are due to be finished by the end of the month, Scott said.
Part of the reason for that, Nelson said, is that until fairly recently, George simply didn’t have the water to support more housing.
“We only had two wells,” she said. “Not a lot of water, not enough to build more homes.”
An additional well that was put in somewhere between 2009 and 2011 alleviated the strain on the water system and made the current construction possible, she said. Scott said that CAD would like to do more in George, but confirmed that water issues are going to have to be worked out first.
The new neighborhood has a pretty diverse collection of residents, Lacelle and Nelson both said.
“There’s some first-time home buyers, and some people where that’s their retirement home,” said Lacelle. “So we’ve got people all across the board, which is fantastic.”
“Some are families of residents here,” Nelson said. “Some have just moved from sharing a home into their own home. And some are new people from out of the area.”
CAD Homes is based in Moses Lake, and is currently working on developments in the Sage Point and Knolls Vista neighborhoods, but besides George, it’s also hard at work in Warden and Mattawa, according to its website.
“Flooded cities that have an influx of housing, you can find a house anywhere,” Lacelle said. “but the Wardens, the Othellos the Georges – that’s where people desperately need houses and no (builder wants) to go there. That's where CAD likes to go, to give people an opportunity to buy a house, because other than that people don't really even have a chance to buy a house. I mean, they work and they save to live in the same house. So we like giving the opportunity to people like that, who worked their whole life, to be able to buy a brand new home.”
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin for more than a quarter century. He may be reached via email at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”