Lighthouse for the Blind Inc., a Seattle nonprofit contract manufacturer, says it will pay workers at a new facility its opening here competitive wages based on annual compensation surveys, including one done here.


The nonprofit, which provides employment, support, and training for the blind, announced last month that it will open the facility in a former Tidymans supermarket building at 6506 N. Addison, on Spokanes North Side. It says that in addition to paying its workers a competitive wage, it also will provide them with a full benefit package, including medical and dental insurance coverage, life insurance, paid sick leave and vacation, and a pension.


The benefits are part of offering a livable wage and how do you achieve that, says Constance Engelstad, the organizations general manager of administration.


The organization will use the well-known Milliman agencys survey of compensation in the Spokane area to set the pay of hires made from here, but also will use compensation surveys of other areas, including national ones, when it recruits from outside the local area, Engelstad says.


Its a complex equation, she says. It depends on the job youre looking at. If youre hiring locally, you use local data. If youre recruiting on the national level, you use national data. Our job is to create as many sustainable jobs as possible.


Lighthouse for the Blind has said it will employ five to 10 people here in its first year and up to 40 to 50 by the end of its third year, and that the U.S. Labor Department reports at least a 70 percent unemployment rate among the blind.


The Lighthouse will provide employment opportunities for people who once thought they were unemployable, says Stan Key, manufacturing industry manager for Greater Spokane Incorporated, who helped the nonprofit select its Spokane site. I am more pleased with this outcome than Ive been with any previous site-location effort in my 20-plus years in the economic-development arena.


Joel Crosby, a commercial real estate broker with Tomlinson South, of Spokane, says, It was the most rewarding deal Ive done. You go to their plant in Seattle, which I did, and its very inspirational. To see the way they function, and what they do, its very touching. The blind want to work; they just need an opportunity to work. He adds that Tomlinson still is active in commercial real estate after splitting off from Tomlinson Black.


The city of Spokane planning department, the Spokane Transit Authority, and the Lilac Foundation for the Blind also helped with the Lighthouse project, Greater Spokane Incorporated says.


Lighthouse will make here easel-like communication wall boards and file folders and binders and also will assemble a new tool for the military that soldiers will use when they dig in while in the field, says Melanie Wimmenauer, the Seattle organizations communications and development director.


Its still working on final arrangements for the latter product, she says, adding, Were just not sure that well have more than one customer. Regarding the wall boards, she says, That is one of the contracts that we can move, and we can train people over there (in Spokane) to do that.


Lighthouse for the Blind expects to contract soon for renovations to be done on its Spokane building, and believes the work will be done by the end of March. It will focus on hiring employees who live here, although its possible that some Seattle employees who are from Spokane will want to return to Eastern Washington, says Lighthouse CEO Kirk Adams, who is blind. It already has begun seeking job applicants through the Spokane office of the Washington state Department of Services for the Blind, Engelstad says. It will meet with private-sector and state job developers soon and will have a job fair not long after that at its new building, she says.


Ive already got a whole bunch of people whove applied for the jobs over there, Engelstad says. She adds, though, that, Manufacturing is not for everyone, and some applicants cant adjust to the noise in a plant.


At its manufacturing facility in Seattle, Lighthouse employed earlier this week 187 full-time-equivalent workers who are blind, blind and deaf, or blind with other disabilities, Wimmenauer says. They were among 307 FTEs at that plant. The organizations numbers fluctuate some frequently.


The organization, which has almost $38 million in annual revenue, makes aircraft parts there for Boeing Co., canteens and hydration packs for the U.S. military, communications boards such as whiteboards and chalkboards, paper products, mops, sewing vests, spatulas, and other items. It says its workers fill a wide range of positions, working as machinists and machine set-up personnel, production workers, computer instructors, information-technology specialists, Web programmers, receptionists, customer service representatives, administrative assistants, and management staff.


In many cases, its workers use precision machining and injection-molding equipment modified for the sight impaired.


Candice Bailey, administrative assistant to Pat OHara, a Lighthouse executive who is working on the organizations Spokane project, says the adaptive technology the organization uses to help blind people and those with little vision do their jobs includes computers that talk, have Braille keyboards, and produce Braille outputs. Those with at least some vision can use a feature called zoom text, which increases the size of letters and numbers on their computer screens, and customized keyboards that have larger characters on their keys. Some instruments that employees use, such as specially designed calipers, produce measurements that talk to give employees measurement values audibly, she says.


Wimmenauer says the organization trains its workers extensively, including through adult computer classes. She says the amount of training a worker needs can depend on the worker. A machinist who recently has gone blind, for example, takes far less training to work as a machinist than a person who has been blind for a long time but never has done such work.


Lighthouse strives to make every job it provides available to the blind, Engelstad says.


Lighthouse says it self-funds the majority of its operations through the manufacturing and sale of products, but also supplements its manufacturing income with contributions from corporations, foundations, service organizations, and individual contributions.


Lighthouse offers support services such as orientation and mobility training, housing support, and a comprehensive deaf-blind program. It teaches some of its workers independent living skills, including how to use a microwave, how to get ready for work and get to work, and even how to use a seeing-eye dog to go from the plant to a nearby corner coffee shop to get a cup of coffee, Wimmenauer says.


Like we say, Engelstad says, the only thing blind people cant do is drive a car, or at least they shouldnt.


Contact Richard Ripley at (509) 344-1261 or via e-mail at editor@spokanejournal.com.