Well, thanks to GTE and the foresight of the Port of Whitman County, SEL was able to purchase a 30-acre site with water, sewer, electricity , and telecommunications infrastructure already in place in the industrial park at the Port. When Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories opens the new facility, it will be the largest employer in the county, providing 430 employees with family-wage jobs. So what we see here is a family committed to the community and business. And a community committed to families and businesses. The community supports the growth of businesses.
Families support the growth of the community, and growth becomes exponential.
The Port is now using the money they earned by selling those 30 acres to SEL to develop another 30 acres of the industrial park and attract even more businesses to move to Whitman County to provide even more family-wage jobs. This is fantastic. And that s not all. The Port has also turned in an application for state funding to get telecommunications infrastructure installed throughout Whitman County that would service the needs of all industrial parks and towns throughout the county. This kind of teamwork is at the heart of rural economic development.