It was sunny but cold Tuesday in the Fred Meyer parking lot in Warrenton, and not much warmer inside the huge Goodwill trailer where Tom Lillard, of Astoria, was sorting donated items into various categories and loading them into the appropriate containers. Outside the trailer, Seaside resident Timothy Davis battled a brisk wind as he helped people unload their vehicles and carried donations to the trailer.

“We’ve been keeping pretty busy,” Davis said. “We’re usually busy right before the end of the year.”

That’s because tax season is fast approaching and the value of items donated to Goodwill can often translate into tax deductions. Davis hands out blank receipts to donors who want them.

It was the lunch hour and vehicles pulled up one after the other. Chad Calhoun’s SUV was stuffed with household items, including a nice-looking bed with a fancy headboard. “I’m getting rid of extra stuff we don’t need and hopefully others can use,” said Calhoun, who had just moved from Cannon Beach to Arch Cape.

The big blue Goodwill trailers – Lillard estimates they range from 40 to 50 feet long – are usually filled up every two days, but often it takes just one day, he said. When it’s nearly full, they phone headquarters and a big semi makes the trip to Warrenton to drop off an empty trailer and haul the full one back to Portland.

Although business is brisk, the much-loved Goodwill trailer will soon be a thing of the past. Goodwill is building a full-fledged 25,000 square foot store in Warrenton, on the east side of U.S. Highway 101, just northeast of the new Costco Wholesale store. Site preparation is slated to start as early as next week, Peter Collins said Tuesday. Collins is Goodwill’s director of operations for Columbia-Willamette region, which includes Warrenton.

“We’ll move dirt around in the next 10 days,” Collins said. He expects construction of the new store to start in March or April of next year and take about five months and hopes to open the new store in September or October.

It will be a “tilt-up” concrete building, Collins said, which means its concrete wall panels will be cast on-site and tilted into place. The store will have 10,000 square feet of retail space, and will feature a covered drive-through area for donations.

“We’re excited about the new store,” said Dale Emanuel, public relations spokeswoman for Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette (GICW), based in Portland. She said all Goodwill stores are designed to be barrier-free and modern so any employee can work there. Items go from truck to store floor in 48 hours and stock is rotated frequently. “Consumers want fresh goods,” Emanuel said.

The mission of GICW is to provide vocational opportunities to people with barriers to employment, such as physical, emotional or mental disabilities, older people, at-risk youths and others. Operating retail stores like the one to be built in Warrenton helps integrate those people into the workforce and generates funds for programs that help them improve their skills.

Emanuel said Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette operates 40 retail and outlet stores and one Internet store in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington, and has been the No. 1 Goodwill retailer in the United States for 18 consecutive years.

Mayor Gil Gramson is happy to see the 41st store opening in Warrenton. “The North Coast Business Park is taking off. Several businesses have expressed interest, but this has been the most promising. We’re looking forward to having them,” Gramson said. “It will help a lot of citizens get quality merchandise at reasonable prices. The quality of their merchandise will surprise you. And a lot of people go there for their clothing needs,” he said.

In addition, Gramson said, having another store in the city’s North Coast Business Park will channel more property tax into the city’s Urban Renewal District and generate system development charges and various fees for the city.

The new store can expect plenty of business – in both sales and donations. Emanuel said more than 21,000 area residents donated nearly 1.3 million pounds of household goods at the trailer donation site in the Fred Meyer parking lot in 2008. That site will close when the new store opens its doors.

But for now, Lillard and Davis are busy stuffing the trailer with everything from teaspoons to furniture. “We get all kinds of different stuff. Last year we got an antique black-lacquer dresser, handpainted, and some interesting artwork,” Davis said. But he said the mainstays are common items – a whole lot of clothes, books and glassware. They also get a lot of televisions, some with spider webs inside.

A total of three full-time employees, and one part-time, help man the trailer. Lillard said it’s an interesting job and he enjoys helping others. “You meet a lot of good people,” he said, “and some bad people, too, who try to dump junk.” With the lifting and carrying in all kinds of weather, it’s a physically demanding job. “We sort (the donations) out, put them into totes,” he said. “We stay open even in rain or snow, but if it gets too bad, we close.”

Their jobs will be less weather-influenced once the new store opens, and Davis and Lillard will have many more co-workers. Emanuel plans to send out 30,000 invitations to the grand opening of the Warrenton store. It will employ 30 to 35 people, many of them local residents, and provide welcome paychecks in these troubled economic times. “The change that happens in people’s lives is immeasurable,” Emanuel said.