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More than 20 years have passed since the Riedel Municipal Solid Waste Composting Facility shut down in Northeast Portland, and Cully residents are still talking about it.

鈥淚n terms of how they were running the facility, it was a really bad experience,鈥� said Kathy Fuerstenau, chairwoman of the . 鈥淭hey had very little communication with the neighborhood, and it smelled terrible.鈥�

The multimillion-dollar facility lasted less than a year and produced no viable compost.

So when proposed to build in the same area a new $55 million facility that would turn food waste into energy, company officials said they reached out to residents first.

鈥淲e knew we wouldn’t succeed without support from the neighbors,鈥� said John McKinney, president of Columbia Biogas. 鈥淲e wanted to let them know the plan for operating the plant and how they could get involved.鈥�

The company, the neighborhood association and several east-side nonprofit groups formed a Neighborhood Advisory Committee to make sure that everyone in the area would benefit from the facility.

One of the commitments made by Columbia Biogas and the committee was to stimulate economic development in the Cully neighborhood by providing jobs. Recently, the committee partnered with , a local nonprofit agency, to coordinate an initiative to identify tradespeople in the neighborhood and then hire them to build and operate the facility.

鈥淚t makes sense for people in this area to have priority over other people for jobs (related to the facility),鈥� Fuerstenau said. 鈥淏ecause the facility is in their neighborhood, they would take personal sense in the work and make sure everything runs smoothly.鈥�

Worksystems Inc. will use WorkSource Portland Metro, a database often used by small contractors, to search for qualified candidates who live in the neighborhood. , the general contractor for the project, has agreed to devote personnel to meeting with candidates. Additionally, , a water-treatment specialty firm that will run the facility once it’s completed, has agreed to do the same.

According to Alan Hip贸lito, executive director of , one of the nonprofit organizations represented in the NAC, the facility will create 85 construction jobs and 20 operations jobs. Hip贸lito said both job types will include entry-level positions and specialized positions. He added that any of the positions could go to Cully residents if they have the right qualifications.

鈥淲e’ve been involved in other processes where we’ve had to convince the owner and general contractor to create these types of opportunities, and it was hard to do so,鈥� Hip贸lito said. 鈥淭his is a pretty unique situation.鈥�

Hip贸lito said that he would not have supported the project if the commitment to job creation had not been made.

鈥淲e’re just not interested in developments that benefit themselves and protect the environment,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want developments that will do that and benefit the existing community 鈥� to help residents with low income make money and build skills to use down the line.鈥�

An NAC event is planned so that workers discovered by Worksystems Inc. can submit their applications and interview for positions.

No one in the committee knows how many positions exactly will be filled by Cully residents. However, many of its representatives say residents have inquired about jobs related to the project.

John Gardener, community investment manager at Worksystems Inc., said he expects half of the operations jobs to go to neighborhood workers. He added that construction jobs are harder to determine because he does not know how much specialized contracting work will take place.

鈥淯nfortunately unemployment is very high in Northeast Portland, so there are a lot of folks that we could put to work in the area,鈥� Gardener said. 鈥淚f we were to sample the area, I’m guessing we would find a lot of experienced out-of-work trade workers, who are exactly who we want to help.鈥�

Gardener said if not enough workers are found in the Cully neighborhood, the search will expand to other Northeast neighborhoods.