Landlord's water bill keeps business from operating

Red tape, protocol, and a failure to communicate is keeping the Grand Gallery of Arts from reopening.

Faran Sohappy owns a business called Music and Beyond. First located off of Midway Avenue across from Safeway, Sohappy was selling CDs, music equipment, movies, and more.

Sohappy jumped at the opportunity to move his business to the Grand Gallery of Arts building on Main Street. The move to the new rented space would enable Sohappy to, in addition to running his shop, host music events on the stage and produce music, something he is passionate about.

What Sohappy didn’t know was that there is nearly $2,000 owed to get water up and running in the building again, including $1,200 to re-install a water meter, and several hundred dollars for the owner’s water bill.

Owner Fay Maudsley had been making payments to the city on the water bill, but stopped, City Clerk Lorna Pierce said. The water meter was removed after three months of non-payment, as required by city ordinance, and the debt turned over to a collection agency.

Kevin Portch, owner of Loepp Furniture and Appliance, which operates out of several buildings on the same street, asked the city and the collection agency if he could foot the bill, money he would later get paid back through a portion of the rent. Portch says he wants to see the area have a new business and to see someone taking care of the building.

But something so simple as paying a bill apparently isn’t so simple.

The collection agency will only speak with the building owner, who is said to have health problems and to be nearly impossible to reach, or with a legal representative of the owner.

The city could take the payment to reinstall the water meter from Portch, but couldn’t turn the water on until the water bill was taken care of, which is in the collection agency’s hands now.

“I’m just trying to bring something to the community, and I don’t know where else to turn,” Sohappy said at the Grand Coulee City Council meeting Aug. 21, trying to find a solution. “There’s so many things this place can do.”

Sohappy has already invested time, energy, and money into cleaning up the building, in addition to leaving his former location, where he said he had been perfectly happy.

Although those on the council expressed sympathy for Sohappy’s situation, and want to see his business thrive, their hands are tied in the situation.

“It’s a very tangled web at this point in time,” Pearce said.

Until the owner steps up, Sohappy is limited in what he can do in a building without water. Unless the owner steps up to help sort all of this out, he plans to move his shop back to its former location in mid-September — if it’s still available.

“She put our business in jeopardy,” Sohappy said. “I know it wasn’t intentional. It sounded so good at first.”