Magic Valley finds the national spotlight for its ag sector

Matt Erskine, deputy assistant secretary for economic development at the U.S. Department of Commerce, visited the Twin Falls region Sept. 21 to get insight into Idaho’s breadbasket. He said the federal government wants to help the region prosper, especially in manufacturing.

“Part of the reason I am here is to see first-hand and hear first-hand the challenges you face,” Erskine said. “We’re looking for the best ways to support your efforts.”

Twin Falls is one of 24 regions designated within the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP), an initiative of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, where Erskine is chief operating officer. The program is designed to accelerate the resurgence of manufacturing in communities nationwide by supporting the development of long-term economic development strategies, according to an EDA release.

Erskine took a day-long tour with the region’s city, county, state, economic development, education and business leaders stopping at McCain Foods; the new Watco Companies perishable warehouse that will serve as a transloading facility for its Eastern Idaho Railroad; Fabri-Kal; Chobani; and the Glanbia Cheese Innovation Center.

Agriculture is a $9 billion industry in Magic Valley with some 18,500 employees, according to the University of Idaho Extension report, “Contributions of Agribusiness of idaho’s Magic Valley Economy.”

Erskine witnessed the regional collaboration the Magic Valley has built around the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization, or SIEDO, to make sure designated government, education and business leaders are ready to act when a major company takes a look at the region.

“This region knows what it’s good at,” Erskine said. “These are communities that are candid, frank and clear. We know other communities are too wide-eyed and want to be the next Silicon Valley. They are chasing things that aren’t realistic.”

Twin Falls Mayor Shawn Barigar asked Erskine for suggestions on finding employees for the growing agriculture sector.  In August, the unemployment rate in the Twin Falls statistical area of Twin Falls and Jerome counties was 3.2 percent, according to the Idaho Department of Labor. That’s just 800 people in Twin Falls, notes College of Southern Idaho President Jeff Fox.

“One of the big themes we were talking about is we have to get young people in elementary school and high school to realize that manufacturing is no longer dirty, dangerous and dumb,” Erskine said. “We have to get kids into our manufacturing communities and have companies opening doors allowing kids to see manufacturing.”

Erskine said major employers must be at the table for the long term in planning, developing and executing workforce development issues. He cited a Tampa Bay community college collaboration with the automotive industry to tailor an employee training program and facility specifically for industry needs.

“Employers stepped up and supported a large share of the equipment,” Erskine said. “(Erskine’s Economic Development Administration) funded the structure. Every person who goes through the program is guaranteed a job.”

Region IV Development Association, a Twin Falls nonprofit that works with government agencies to diversify the local economy, spearheaded the Magic Valley’s application for the manufacturing community designation and organized Erskine’s visit.

Carleen Herring, Region IV’s chief operating officer, has a conference call each Monday morning involving all 24 designated IMCP cities to discuss common issues and share solutions. She said she wants to modify a career awareness program created by the Greater Pittsburgh Metals Manufacturing Community, another IMCP region.

“If you can spark that interest in manufacturing, you can get kids excited about STEM education,” Herring said about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Herring said Erskine adds another level to the IMCP regions collaborating across the country. He might see common links between regions that may not come up in conference calls. She said Erskine matched up Utah and Seattle regarding composite recycling.

“(Erskine’s visit) elevates the exposure of what we’re doing to the national level,” she said. “The way it has worked in other communities is he is able to make connections with what other communities are doing.”

IMCP regions have direct access to people in 11 federal agencies assigned to the Magic Valley.

Magic Valley and the other IMCP regions were selected in a competitive process that thinned a field of 70 applicants.

One key to Magic Valley’s emergence as an IMCP region is the College of Southern Idaho’s commitment to workforce development and economic development. CSI established and provides half of SIEDO’s funding.

In the 2015-16 academic year, CSI providing workforce training for 9,700 people with 548 courses ranging from one-hour workshops to 40-hour apprentice programs, said Brandi Turnipseed, CSI’s director of workforce development.

“We are involved in the training of the workforce of just about every economic development project in this region,” Turnipseed said. “Workforce training is customizing specific training for employers. We will get involved with them in the early stages (of recruiting) through SIEDO. We examine the type of jobs they will have and the skills they will need.”

Beyond job training, CSI Workforce Development also finds meeting space for companies, contact people in the community, and, in one instant, even found a house for a plant manager at a company moving to Twin Falls, Turnipseed said.

A milestone moment for rail transportation in Magic Valley is unfolding right now as Watco Companies opens a perishable food warehouse in Burley for its Eastern Idaho Railroad, the short line railroad that has branches from Wendell and Buhl shuttling railroad cars to and from the Union Pacific mainline in Minidoka.

The warehouse is serving as a long-sought transloading facility to get products from trucks to rail cars. Some agriculture sector businesses load product onto EIRR trains along the route, but many more truck product to Salt Lake City or elsewhere, Herring said.

The 150,000-square-foot perishable warehouse will start operating in mid-October. The pilot project will first deal only in fresh and frozen potatoes, said Winston Inouye, manager of strategy and customer development at Watco Transportation Services and also executive director at Mini-Cassia Commerce Authority.

“It’s a step to something bigger in scope,” Inouye said. “In the future, we want to expand service to dairy and other perishables.”

Herring at Region IV wants to find federal funding through IMCP to improve access from U.S. 30 to Watco’s transloading facility.

Inouye said Watco is installing a loading and unloading rack system in Burley that can reduce the loading of a 72-foot refrigerated rail car from 22 man hours to two man hours.

The perishable warehouse will allow Watco/Eastern Idaho Railroad to reduce freight transport to the East Coast from two or three weeks to six or seven days, Inouye said.

Inouye said the Burley transloading facility will create a one-stop shop for customers as Watco Supply Chain Services, a two-year-old subsidiary of Watco Companies, will pick up merchandise from customer warehouses. This would eliminate the need of agriculture business to transport their goods to the railroad, Inouye said.