City leadership should be as effective at helping business as it is in hindering it

Well, once again the Grand Coulee City Hall’s elected officials have proven that they are EXTREMELY effective when it comes to stomping out business in the Grand Coulee area, and not as good when it comes to cultivating an atmosphere for it.

Our question to you, Mr. Mayor and the Council Members that have failed to act over the last couple weeks regarding the day care center (whomever you may be, we did hear it wasn’t all of you but complacency isn’t much better in our opinion), why does it take so long to do anything in your city? Why six months minimum to add a few lines of text into some zoning code for a desperately needed daycare center in the area?

Six months minium, really? We seem to remember not long ago, another business on Main St. floated the idea of having dancers of the exotic nature at his establishment and the council managed to put a hold on that idea by the next council meeting with updated zoning to stop the idea dead in its tracks very shortly after.

So, from where we sit (whatever the nature of the business being proposed) you’re much more willing to make an effort to stop business than to make any effort to help start one. Why is this?

Let’s try a little experiment in how effectively Grand Coulee local government CAN actually function when it chooses to; come on, Coulee residents, this will be fun!!

How about for our space up on Main St. we put in a WA state- sanctioned marijuana dispensary? One of several ideas we could make work inside our building located up on Main St in Grand Coulee. Our guess is, this type business is not currently in the “NO, NO” section of the current local zoning codes for Main St. business located in Grand Coulee. We currently have the room and I bet it would be profitable. Why not, Grand Coulee leadership?

Well, we will leave the “why not” to you and the business expansion think tank down at city hall.

I’m sure you will have a “why not” for us very soon. I bet we get an answer much sooner than the 6 month time frame you told Mrs. Marconi she would need to wait for you guys to maybe do something about helping her establish a daycare center in the area.

So if you can stop a business idea for the good of the area, why can’t you apply the same efforts into helping start one? Seems like a double standard to us.

We thought a daycare in an area that didn’t have one and is in desperate need of one might be a positive step forward for the community and its residents.

Now, we do have other ideas of how to use our square footage up here on Main St. in the near future and this isn’t about us whining about not having a renter in our space. Mrs. Marconi came along with a good idea, she liked the space and we thought, why not.

Mr. Mayor and the Grand Coulee City Council, you will just have to wait and see which business we actually do decide to put in down the road, but just to be safe, you better dig out that paper work you couldn’t manage to get to for 6 months minimum (a death sentence to any business start up in this area) for Mrs. Marconi and add another line in there, if not in favor of a family daycare center, maybe so you can keep yet another business idea from getting off the ground in the heart of your city.

We all know you and your council are far better at stopping business than helping it out, prove our point.

Richard & Mandi Button

Life Long Local Residents and Business Owners