05/27/05 Inspection fee hike: Boss leaves spud com

Washington Ag May 27, 2005 An increase in inspection fees for numerous commodities including, apples, pears and potatoes, was approved yesterday by Washington Agriculture director Valoria Loveland. In authorizing the unit-weight increase effective July 1st, Loveland pointed out that while there have been hourly inspection fee increases in recent years, there has been no increase in hundred-weight unit fees for sixteen years. A Speciality Crop Coalition had opposed the increase contending it wouldn't be necessary if monies were not removed from the inspection fund to pay for state government overhead. The executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, Pat Boss, has resigned to pursue other career opportunities. Assistant executive director Karen Bonaudi has been appointed interim executive director. Potato Commissioners will hold a special meeting May 31st at the Commission office in Moses Lake at 10 a.m. to review options for filling the position. USDA undersecretary Mark Rey says that after one year of being grounded due to safety concerns, up to nine P2V air tankers may be used for the 2005 firefighting season, if they pass one more series of inspections. Rey: "The first inspections will be taking place this weekend so the first of the aircraft will likely be returned to service early next week." I'm Bob Hoff.