Soap Lake's dream takes stride forward

Vision of a roaring downtown aided by $30,000 grant awarded to city

Soap Lake's dream of a prettier downtown area is now a bit closer to reality.

The city has won a $30,000 Competitive Grant from the state's Growth Management Services, which will be used to put in motion a master plan to develop and remodel the town's central area.

George Sharp, tourism development manager of the state's Community Trade and Economic Development department, said the city of Soap Lake is "three for three," in the applications it has placed in order to receive funding.

"We received a $24,000 Community Development block grant for a feasibility study for Delancey-Houghton school and last year we received a $50,000 grant for the Masquers Theatre from the U.S. Forest Service," he said.

Sharp, one of the people responsible for finding funding sources for the revamping of downtown, said that the gathering of money has not stopped there. "We have to identify other funding sources that are available for (Soap Lake) to apply to," he said, going as far as to say that the city has the most potential of any community in Washington of going from its current state to being an actual tourism destination.

Soap Lake is pinning its hopes of becoming a hot spot on an economic revitalization of the central area. This, Burr Beckwith, from the city's planning commission said, would be key to bring the town "into the 21st century."

However, before any sort of revival takes place, the city needs to put in practice Sharp's mantra and find some more grant money. Beckwith believes the $30,000 of this grant will come in handy when it's time to do that.

"In order to get further grants, we need to have a plan in place, we can't do it all at once," Beckwith said, noting that the grant would help develop such a plan, even in times when, as Beckwith pointed out, small towns such as Soap Lake are struggling.

These struggles can be felt in the business and tourism areas as well. Currently, Sharp said, the downtown area of Soap Lake has "maybe five to six viable business and a lot of storefront available." Furthermore, Sharp ventured a guess that the city has less than 50 percent occupancy rate in its hotels and motels.

In comparison, Sharp said, the city's tourism enterprise has the potential to grow and reach between 70 and 90 percent occupancy rates, all the while having a downtown area filled with profitable stores. "Within five years, if we have (put in place) all the strategies we have been talking about, Soap Lake will be reaping the benefits of that," he said.

The first step towards this vision Sharp said, will be to open bidding in order to get a professional to develop this master plan.

Beckwith described the city's ideal economic and tourism planner as "someone who first tells us how to bring money into town, someone who might do something visual to help decide what downtown Soap Lake might look like, and what kind of enterprises would work here."

After the plan is created and more money is gathered, some of the projects would include restoring some old buildings, and encouraging business ventures to surround the city's east beach, located near the city's visitor center.

These businesses, Beckwith stated, would offer a litany of alternatives to visitors and residents, from recreational activities to cultural venues, as well as enterprises that highlight the lake's healing attributes, such as spas.

Beckwith believes that a plan to revitalize the city's downtown area can do plenty of good things for Soap Lake, in terms of jobs and a more bustling economy. The progress, he said, may even expand beyond the core. "It has the possibility of rejuvenating the whole town," he said.

Beckwith said that an important part of planning the development of Soap Lake's central area, is reaching out to citizens. "The plan includes local support from the community," he said. "Making sure everybody is on the same page."

Moreover, he said he hoped Soap Lake reaches that consensus before the "planning and digging" starts, bringing together people from the three different ethnicities that make up mostly of the town's population: Caucasian, Hispanic and Russo-Ukrainian.

Strides have been taken in order to bring communities together, Beckwith said. "We have reached out to talk to various interpreters who work with the kids," he said. "We have been real supportive of our International Market downtown," he added, referring to a store of Ukrainian and Russian goods located in downtown Soap Lake.

Nonetheless, he said he has not seen much of a response from the Russian and the Hispanic community, though he said the city tries to notify them in of events in their language. "There is some participation," he said, especially in citywide events such as the Winter Fest around Christmastime.

Sharpe, who has been working with the city of Soap Lake on a full-time basis for about 15 months, said that the city's intent is to have a better involvement from the minority community. "we are trying to see what is the better way to approach that," he said. "We tried with interpreters, but we had a low turnout from minorities, so now we are approaching students at school so that they can share (information) with their families at home."