“Where were the Ritzville promoters?”

On a recently aired news broadcast during the week of Sept. 19, the town of Warden was successful in obtaining a Canola oil processing plant that may result in approximately 35-40 new workers.

One of the reasons given was because of its railway accessibility. Excuse me!!! Warden is situated on a “branch” line of the former Northern Pacific Railway and on the main line of the Milwaukee Road. The latter carrier abandoned all of its trackage in March of 1980 west of the twin cities to the Puget Sound.

At present, Warden is served by a short line railway that must depend upon the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway for interchange.

Ritzville is situated on the “main line” of BNSF. For highway use, it is a junction of 395 and I-90. It was mentioned that part of the infrastructure for this plant was already in place at Warden and that it would be easier to get the farm commodities from that area.

Do you mean to say that nobody in this area is qualified to construct a newer and perhaps better facility? As to the matter of proximity of the commodities, that is just quatsch!! This apparently is not the first time something like this has happened.

Since nobody wants to factually answer these questions, I will say that unless there is a change of direction and/or new innovators, these individuals running for and getting elected to office may soon face the dilemma of presiding over a “historic” waste land.

Mr. L.R. Keith, Ritzville