OTHELLO — Jon Erickson has been named the assistant manager of development for the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District. Erickson previously was the district's development coordinator. 

"I'm ready to take it on," Erickson said. "I've been waiting to take this bull by the horns for a long time. I'm excited." 

It's a new position for ECBID and follows the selection of Bobby Bischoff as the new secretary-manager. Bischoff will take over the job June 1, 2027, with the retirement of longtime secretary-manager Craig Simpson. 

"There's going to be a lot of institutional knowledge that's going to have to be replaced," Erickson said, and the ECBID directors wanted to take advantage of the experience already in the district.  

Erickson will be responsible for organizing and directing further development work, according to a district press release.  

"Continued development of the Columbia Basin Project is a priority," Simson said in the press release. "Our board has directed us to allocate significant resources to it advancement, and we have a strong team of partners who are all working together to continue the momentum."  

Erickson has been with the ECBID for about seven and a half years but had been working with federal contracting for about 20 years before that, he said. He was hired as part of the construction of an extension of a canal, then moved on to the job of development coordinator. 

His focus will remain on the district's existing effort to build out the canal system.  

"The main project, right here, right now, is OGWRP," he said. 

That's the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project, designed to convert farms in a section of Grant, Adams and Lincoln counties from groundwater irrigation to surface water from the ECBID system. Seven of the proposed canals are in the design phase. 

Erickson grew up in Warden, he said, with family in Othello and Moses Lake. He spent a decade in Alaska and gained experience with the federal system there, he said. 

"I understand the hoops they have to jump through," he said.