Nine communities throughout Washington will be participating in a pilot initiative aimed at helping rural towns find the technical expertise and funding they need to tackle their often overwhelming infrastructure and community development needs.
The Washington State Rural Development Council, operating as Partners for Rural Washington (PRWA), announced announced the Rural Opportunity, Advancement and Resilience (ROAR) project participants this morning as part of a joint project with the Washington State Department of Commerce, Association of Washington Cities, Washington State University Extension and the Washington USDA Rural Development office.
“The goal of ROAR is to develop a cooperative model for sustained technical and project management assistance to ensure rural communities in Washington have help completing their most challenging infrastructure and community development projects” said PRWA Executive Director Jody Opheim. “And for those cases where government grants aren’t the best option, we want to bring private and philanthropic organizations to the table to develop new funding solutions.”
While participation in ROAR does not automatically come with funding, Opheim said, it does provide each pilot community with the additional expertise and person power necessary to secure funding – at no expense to the community. “PRWA is a nonprofit entity, and our work is supported by grants and contributions from organizations that have an interest in seeing rural Washington communities thrive.
“The advantages of helping these communities tackle their thorniest issues as quickly and efficiently as possible are real,” she added. “Early intervention can mean the difference between a community being able to handle its own challenges and county, state and federal officials having to handle them at a much higher cost.”
Mayors of the pilot communities said they look forward to working with PRWA.
“Small towns everywhere consistently do a lot with very little,” said Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin. “Our capacity is stretched thin, and often, we don’t know what we don’t know. Having been selected as one of Partners for Rural Washington’s pilot communities is an honor and an opportunity for our community to not only learn what is possible but to have the capacity to implement positive impacts concerning housing, childcare and job creation.”
White Salmon Mayor Marla Keethler agreed.
“We are so excited to be selected as one of PRWA’s six pilot communities, and see the opportunity as allowing us to move critical projects forward that otherwise would not make progress due to the capacity of our internal staff,” she said. “This kind of program helps level the field for rural communities like White Salmon and Bingen to be able to access the additional support and professional expertise that often is a given within larger municipalities.”
The communities and their specific projects are:
- Starbuck needs to replace both their water and sewer systems and recoat their water tower
- White Salmon/Bingen needs to replace water and sewer lines as well as deal with
stormwater and salmon issues - Everson, Nooksack and Sumas in the Nooksack Valley are looking to improve flood
resilience, build strong infrastructure for residents and businesses and create a new
community center - Wiley City and the Ahtanum Irrigation District are working together to develop a new
wastewater system - Darrington is working on a number of initiatives related to their Wood Innovation
Center and infrastructure to support economic development and housing - Palouse is working on comprehensive replacement of the wastewater treatment
system, adding a water tower and addressing structural deficiencies in the main
bridge in town
Washington state’s federally designated Rural Development Council, Partners for Rural
Washington is a non-profit organization dedicated to partnering with rural communities –
especially those with fewer than 1,000 residents – to tackle and complete some of their
most challenging infrastructure and community development projects. Funded
completely with grants and partnerships, PRWA provides its services at no cost to the
communities.
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