09/19/08 Wheat Commission buying building; Koenig to head WSU Crop and Soil Sciences

Washington Ag September 19, 2008 The Washington Wheat Commission has decided to buy a building to house its operations rather than continue to rent in downtown Spokane. CEO Tom Mick told a Commission meeting this week they had come to terms to purchase a building at the foot of the old Sunset Highway near Government Way for one-million 250-thousand dollars. The Commission already has one million dollars in a reserve fund for a building purchase. With remodeling the total cost could be 1.7 million dollars. Washington State University's Department of Crop and Soil Sciences will be getting a new chair in November. Richard Koenig Associate Professor and Extension Fertility Specialist, will take over for Bill Pan. Koenig says one of his first charges is filling the wheat breeding positions in the department. Koenig: "That certainly from a departmental point of view high on our priority list. They are two important positions in the department, contributing members of the faculty and certainly important to the industry. And I think we feel some pressure to do that during the winter where we can get not only grower input, participation in the process, but good faculty input. We have an opportunity to do this during the winter and we are going to take advantage of it." Both spring wheat breeder Kim Kidwell and winter wheat breeder Steve Jones have taken other positions at WSU. I'm Bob Hoff.