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Home / Washington Business - April 2006 / Community Profile: Big Changes in Winlock |
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Community Profile: Big Changes in Winlock |
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Written On: April 2006 |
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Written By: by Shawn Sullivan |
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Like many towns in Washington, Winlock started out as a small farming community located on the rail line. It grew to become one of the largest cities in the area with car dealers, clothing stores, fine restaurants and other types of businesses typically seen in a large city.
Egg farming became such a significant part of Winlock that the city still celebrates Winlock Egg Days which began in 1937. The celebration kicks off next to the world's largest egg — a 14-foot-long, seven-and-a-half-foot-wide plastic egg at the center of town.
Besides the chickens and the eggs, there were cows. Winlock thrived on several dairy farms spread around the city, produced thousands of eggs and chicks for markets all around the country, and relied on the booming timber industry on which so many of Washington's cities were dependent.
As time went on, farming became less profitable. Egg farming, Winlock's largest source of revenue, started to dwindle, and its local lumber mill began to slow down. In turn, people began moving away to find work.
"Businesses cannot remain open if the city cannot keep the children from leaving," Old Hatchery Antiques owner and local chamber President Mary Garrison said. "You simply cannot do any business in a vacuum."
Buildings started to crumble, sidewalks started to decay. A fire wiped out two large buildings in the middle of town; unmoved piles of rubble still mark both sites. Winlock seemed headed for bankruptcy.
The last diary farm in Winlock recently announced its intention to relocate to eastern Washington. "The Department of Ecology became too burdensome for the owner to stay in business," Winlock Realty owner Dan Godat said. "He is moving his entire operation to eastern Washington where he can still make a profit."
Just when all hope seemed lost, a whisper of something big came. Cardinal CG, a glass refurbishing company, wanted to build a factory outside of the town.
"We needed a convenient location to build a custom-made glass manufacturing facility," Cardinal CG Vice President of West Coast Operations Steve Nelson said. "Winlock became the best choice because of its connection to both the state highway system and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad."
The only thing standing in Cardinal's way was the Growth Management Act. "Under the GMA, there had never been a single rezoning from rural to light industrial," Lewis County EDC Executive Director William Lotto said. "We knew it was going to be a battle of epic proportions, but we also knew that Winlock would be dead if it weren’t for the opening of this plant."
Cardinal CG worked with city and county officials to rezone the land, but encountered a lot of resistance from people outside the community.
"We went to every state agency and asked what it would take to construct a manufacturing facility," Nelson said. Cardinal invested millions of dollars to comply with every environmental restriction imposed by the Department of Ecology, but people still protested Cardinal's decision to purchase an old farm. Environmentalists argued that the state should not allow Winlock to destroy farms to create industry, but local supporters spoke out against them.
"Everyone within our community showed tremendous support," Garrison said. "It was wonderful to see the local citizens share one opinion: We want jobs." That local support caused Cardinal CG to continue fighting for rezoning, and its new glass manufacturing facility will open in a few months.
"We built our plant to run silently to appease our neighbors — you won't even be able to hear it running from 20 feet away," Nelson said. "We deeded 30 acres never to be developed, built a 30-foot berm to hide the facility from view, and even constructed a self-contained stormwater treatment system — all to voluntarily ease the burden we cause the community."
The plant will employ more than 250 people and pay above the prevailing wage. It will create 20 miles of 12-foot-wide glass every 24 hours, and will operate for 15 years before it needs any upgrading.
"One-third of the materials we will use will come from broken glass, which will stop thousands of pounds of broken glass from taking up landfill space," Nelson said. "By using the recycled glass, we actually end up with a higher quality product."
Cardinal CG was the first manufacturing company to locate a facility in Winlock, but it won't be the last. Several developers have purchased land within the rezoned area, and construction will begin in few months. Another developer scheduled the removal of the rubble in the middle of downtown, and a new office building will rise in its place.
The city no longer fears bankruptcy, owners of the local shops are cleaning their windows, and people walking about no longer wear the frowns associated with a struggling community. And Winlock remains a tightly knit community where everyone supports each other. "When you are around a small community such as ours, you begin to feel as if everyone is family," Garrison said. "At the very least you know everybody by name."
Shop owners don't mind the occasional dog tagging along with workers. MI Windows and Doors, a local patio door manufacturer that employs 48 people, has a chocolate lab named Moose as its unofficial mascot. "He just kind of showed up one day, and we fed him," MI Windows and Doors General Manager Andrew Mortagne said. "As a matter of fact, I cannot think of a single employee that doesn’t own a dog."
Joe Payn, owner of Paynless Automotive, looks forward to steady work. "Sometime during the next year or two, it is really going to start booming here," Payn said. "I see enough growth potential for me to have my shop full at all times."
As Winlock fights to discover a prosperity seldom known to such a small community, it has again realized what it means to have hope. Through community involvement and hard work, a desperate town overcame the most difficult circumstances in order to survive.
"We've put our baited hook in the water, and we think we have what it takes to catch the big one," Garrison said. "When everything is finished and all of the Growth Management Act requirements are satisfied, we are going to have something extremely valuable — it’s our little pot of gold."
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