Cool, cool water in the double W

WALLA WALLA — For the 2,600 students — their school icon is "Warriors" — arriving at Walla Walla Community College, it is a day at the office, or the welding shop, or the golf-management school, or the horseshoeing course for prospective farriers.

As with each of the state's community colleges, this one fits into its landscape as nice as a boot. The community-college system is tailored to its surroundings, none more so than this autumn-gold campus now dedicating itself to a new role in the state. Gov. Christine Gregoire officially opened two new centers on campus Friday: a new building to educate the coming generations of nurses, and something quite new, the William A. Grant Water and Environmental Center. Named for longtime Eastern Washington legislator Bill Grant, the building was in hustling preparation for its opening. But what would it do?

Center Director Gerald J. Anhorn said affiliates such as the state, the federal government, the Umatilla Tribe and other water constituencies would fill the offices near an oval meeting room and, in the coming years, talk and reason out disputes over water.

"This is a place where everyone leaves their shotguns out at the door," Anhorn said.

He is a professional in the business of water. Anhorn worked in Bellevue and Bothell on water issues and arrived here in one of the driest parts of the state to manage a resolution center.

"There's got to be a wetter way," he says, using the mantra of the water-worried.

This is certainly a unique place in the state, and perhaps in the Northwest. The edifice atop the new building spells out "water" in eight languages and symbols. The artwork is thematic; the symbolism ripe in the small stream that flows just outside.

"This is a welcome place to resolve water disputes," Anhorn said. "It is not the state, it is not the federal government, it is a place for collaboration, a place for disputing parties to call home."

Across campus at the new nursing building, I watch Noelle give birth. She is the mother of a thousand births — a mannequin used to instruct the nursing students in the physics of nature. A pneumatic pump pushes out a little baby, head first and rolling to the shoulder past the labia, just as in life.

Marilyn D. Galusha is director of Health Science Education, and says the need for nurses in the sparse populations of these counties requires the skills her classrooms provide. A student can come here unshaped by previous education in medicine and go all the way to a Ph.D. on this campus. Galusha says the new facility will offer the best nursing education in this corner of the state.

The same hubris that killed Caesar sometimes is evident when the major four-year universities describe the community colleges. But community colleges are the backbone of the education system, adjusting to each region and needs with the efficiency of a Web browser.

WW Community College President Steve VanAusdle is credited with the new centers and the Warrior spirit. He is something of a legend among community-college leaders, as busy and focused as one of his farrier students shoeing a horse.

In the autumn, the winds that bring a change of seasons also are changing the "double Walla." It's a bright and sprightly place, home to a famous liberal-arts college and a revived downtown. People here are proud of their small, American town.

As the new Water and Environmental Center was dedicated Friday, the sound of hammers was in the background, shared with the neighing of horses. More stuff going in everywhere.

Gerry Anhorn said his resolution mission is "to change the smell of the water." He meant water disputes tend to be bitter, and that the ground-breaking efforts to come at this new place may spring sweet water, instead.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: seattletimes.com">jvesely@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at seattletimes.com