COLFAX, WA – The Port of Whitman County’s plan to clean a site in St. John for a new medical clinic has been completed.
The port bought about three quarters of an acre on Main Street in St. John in 2024. The land is slated for a new Whitman Hospital & Medical Clinics location. The old St. John Café building on the property will be torn down early this year. The parcel was used for retail stores before a gas station operated there into the 1970’s.
The contaminated site needs to be cleaned up for the proposed medical clinic. The port hired the firm Haley & Aldrich to examine what it would take to prepare the property. The company has determined that it will take between 376,000 and 564,000 dollars for that work.
The port is accepting public comments on the cleanup plan. Those comments need to be emailed to port@portwhitman.com The agency presented the plan to St. John City Council Monday night. Whitman Hospital & Medical Clinics is based in Colfax.
The port has also closed on the deal to buy the old Rogers Brothers Seed Company property in Colfax. Plans call for a childcare center to be built on the property next to Colfax High School.
The local government agency spent 728,000 dollars to buy the parcel. The ground also needs to be cleaned up. Last week the port presented that plan to Colfax City Council. The cleanup in Colfax is expected to cost about five million dollars. The port is seeking federal and state grants to help pay for that work.
