Delegation visits Klickitat County

GOLDENDALE — When Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs visited Goldendale June 9, he bought with him consuls representing other countries in Washington and Oregon, including representatives of Mexico, Japan, India and Lithuania.

The event was described as a reverse trade mission, to expose the consuls to some of the products produced in Klickitat County.

The event was organized by former Goldendale city council member, Bickleton wheat farmer and longtime volunteer firefighter Miland Walling. He has a lot of contacts in government and a knack for bringing people together. Their journey included a visit to the Goldendale Observatory last Monday night.

Joining them for a lunch at Maryhill Museum were a number of local officials, like State Rep. Kevin Waters, Gov. Ferguson’s Southwest Washington Rep. John Anderson, Klickitat PUD General Manager Gwyn Miller, Klickitat PUD Commissioner Dan Gunkel of Gunkel Orchards, Goldendale Mayor Dave Jones, former mayors Mike Canon and Mark Sigfrinius, former county commissioner Dave Sauter, Jonathan Lewis at Klickitat Valley Health, and Erik Steimle of Rye Development.

After lunch, everyone had a chance to address the group. Here are some of the remarks worth noting.

Secretary of State Hobbs said it’s time to replace confrontation with collaboration: “When I served in Kosovo and Iraq, I had to go as an infantry officer, to these little communities that have completely different cultures, ideas, and sometimes religions. Because they didn’t talk to the other people, it was just hatred and partisanship. We can’t be like that. And that’s why I come out here to hear from you and see what I can do in my office to help you.”

Carlos Quesnel is the head of Mexico’s consulate in Portland, but his territory also covers Clark, Klickitat and Skamania counties. “We have a very strong trade with Washington,” he said. “It was $5.5 billion in 2025, involving petroleum, aerospace and agricultural products. This creates around 110,000 jobs in Washington state, but we could be buying more.”

Suresh Sharma, consul general of India’s Seattle office, noted there are 200,000 people of Indian origin in the greater Seattle area, and that India primarily imports Washington apples. “But when we came here, we saw there’s a lot of potential from here,” he said. “Indians don’t know that Washington wine is so good in comparison to Napa and the French wine, so we are happy to connect you with their buyers.”

He also suggested a way to make Indian tourists more familiar with the natural beauty of the county. “Encourage them to make a Bollywood movie here,” he said.

Rasa Raisys, honorary consul general for Lithuania, was an enthusiastic visitor: “Boy, you have two amazing gems — the museum and the observatory — for such a small town,” she said. “And listening to all of you speak, I realize there is a lot more in county that people on the other side of the mountains or in the world don’t really hear about.”

And Iyori Makoto, consul general representing Japan, said that it was past time for him to visit this part of Washington. “I learned a lot about the county,” he said. “Next time, I can explain this area not only in Seattle, but in Washington. Please don’t hesitate to contact us.”

Others explained local projects. Steimle shared some numbers from Rye Development, which is leading the pumped storage project: “As we move from permitting into construction, specifically what this project means for Klickitat County is a five-year construction project, including 3,000 family wage positions during construction, 30 permanent positions here in the community and a new $14 million a year tax revenue for the county once constructed.”

Gunkel, who sits on the Klickitat PUD board, said the pumped storage project was not the only big project coming to the county.

“The other project is fully intending to self-supply with nuclear power,” he said. “There is an agreement in place with the only nuclear operator in the Northwest to move forward, funded by the developer to the tune of over $350 million. So there will be no rate impacts in Klickitat County.”

He did not identify the project.

Sauter, who now works for the Port of Klickitat, shared how getting a small amount of funding for a local project can help Dallesport: “We have a rail spur that has been out of service for quite some time, and so we were successful getting some dollars to reopen that,” he said. “This was budget dust to them, but it makes all the difference to us as far as we would not have been able to have this rail spur rehab reopen for business. We actually are already getting inquiries about using that.”

In addition to touring and meeting at Maryhill Museum, the group went on to tour Maryhill Winery, Stonehenge memorial and Gunkel Orchards, where they were encouraged to sample cherries right off the tree.

District 17 State Rep. Kevin Waters summed up the visit: “I’’m very glad to see the Secretary of State here checking out Goldendale, and all folks from the consulates who came down here today just to see this beautiful area,” he said. “I love it. And then getting to check out the cherries — that’s the best part of the whole trip.”