Community Development Partnership- what the future looks like, with Paul Seaquist
Quotes Courtesy of Paul Seaquist
When Paul Seaquist first came to visit his parents, who moved to Milton-Freewater in 1961, he never would have guessed that 62 years later, he would have become a local (he officially moved here in 1966), met and married the lovely Tammy Seaquist who was born and raised in Milton-Freewater, and go on to be the person he is today. What does Paul love about Milton-Freewater? What pushes him to be constantly in-motion, pushing for a better future for us all? Charmed by the small-town life, small businesses, and neighborly vibe, Paul saw- and continues to see- a place with a lot of opportunity. “I love my wife, the location, the mountains, the people- the people more than anything else.”
Paul does many things for our town, and was awarded the Man of the Year at the 1998 Awards Banquet; so, today, we focus on what he is looking forward to this year, in his second Presidency of Community Development Partnership (CDP). CDP is a collective group of individuals representing the community at large. With a wide range of members from the City of Milton-Freewater, Frazier Farmstead, the Milton-Freewater Unified School District, County Commissioners, lawyers, business owners; and those with a vested interest in tourism, insurance, health care, and more. CDP, through the conglomeration of all of these people with different areas of experience in the community, comes together monthly and identifies issues within the community, and attempts to solve them.
For example, in 2013, Milton-Freewater was classified as a flood zone and at-risk of disastrous flooding, and the levee needed to be fixed. “Thanks to [City Manager] Linda Hall, who did a ton of work on that- lived and breathed it for months- we got the flood insurance premium greatly reduced and we were able to get the levee on the ballot,” and it was approved by the greater community. Thanks to those efforts, the levee is fixed and Milton-Freewater is no longer a flood zone! Another effort that CDP was instrumental in fixing was a time when the ambulance service was underfunded. CDP intervened, got it on the ballot, and now we have full-time ambulance services in Milton-Freewater. In 2009, the towns in the greater Walla Walla Valley were looking at valley-wide tourism, and in talks about wayfinding signage to help tourists find local destinations. CDP recognized that over 14,000 cars/day pass through Milton-Freewater on Highway 11, and that we needed to introduce ourselves to people coming to the valley. Thanks to Outwest Printing, we now have darling Milton-Freewater-themed signs on the water tower at the top of the hill. In 2011, CDP thought that the community needed a Farmer’s Market because of the agricultural economic base of our town, and got it started with just 4 vendors; last year, the Farmer’s Market had an average of 25 vendors on-site every week who reported record sales!
With grant applications all over his desk, Paul does not intend to waste any time with his CDP Presidency; “I’m always looking around and wondering how I can help make things better.” When asked about his vision, he has a number of things on his mind: have Main Street and Columbia weed-free; have the community generally cleaned up; keep the graffiti/tagging quickly covered; get the sign on the water tower refreshed; install wayfinding signage; and continue to grow the Farmer’s Market. Thanks to the efforts of the great people in CDP, most of these projects are well underway and projected to be completed in a timely manner!
CDP, in partnership with the City of Milton-Freewater and MFCDA, is having a full-scale Spring Clean Up/Make a Difference Day on April 15 from 08:00-12:00PM. Projects include painting the gazebo at Orchard Park, clean up and painting the building at Marie Dorian Park, and painting the building at 114 N. Main. Paul also has a vested interest in the economic vitality and development of Milton-Freewater. He’d like to “get all these projects done quickly, so we can move on to other things.” He’s got his next projects already lined out: brochures about “why you should have your business in Milton-Freewater, why you should live here, and why you should vacation here.”
“The vision is that, with everybody’s help, Milton-Freewater will become the place to be!”
