Business community turns out for visitor presentation

Complainers urged to attend meetings, get involved

MOSES LAKE — Residents got another chance to view their town through the eyes of a visitor this week.

Thursday morning, more than 30 people gathered in the Moses Lake Business Association meeting room for an abbreviated version of the June 22 presentation by Destination Development CEO Roger Brooks. Brooks signed a one-year contract with the city earlier this year, to create the plan officials hope would turn the city into a tourist and economic development lure. The three- to five-year plan will include marketing and design concepts which the city will then try and implement.

Destination Development partner John Kelsh walked attendees through the presentation, reiterating the suggestions Brooks made in his initial presentation, including creation of signs that will be a better reflection of downtown, limiting the number of plastic banners and temporary sign boards and putting up signs perpendicular to the road.

"You'll see a sense of uniqueness in all of these questions, and that's really the key," Kelsh said. "You have to be unique or the best, and believe me, being the best is tough to do. Somebody's always gunning for you. It's better to try to be unique as a destination, and the uniqueness factor is really all about the compelling reason for getting someone to get in their car and drive a certain distance."

Some of the people in attendance had been at the earlier meeting, but it was new to others, including Moses Lake Business Association Executive Director Sally Goodwin.

"It's a conversation starter, and that's the idea," Goodwin said. "Show some good, some bad. 'Hey, where are we in this mix?' We were good in some, we were bad in others. There's room for improvement, definitely."

Businessman Kurt Oberloh said that after viewing the presentation, he would consider accentuating the services of his information technology company, and not necessarily the name, one of the suggestions made.

"All of our signs have been focused on our company name, and not necessarily what we do," Oberloh said, adding of the presentation, "It was kind of interesting, looking at what the finer points of Moses Lake are and bringing them to uniqueness."

"It focused especially on things that the city has to do, in the public realm with the signage, but there's a lot of work having to be done by store owners," resident and former city councilman Lee Blackwell said. "My problem is that I've seen this with other consultants in town here and, are we going to do it?"

"It's one of those things where it's going to take a buy-in from everybody to make it work," resident businessman Stroud Kunkle agreed. "Getting the buy-in may be the difficult part. A lot of the things, we've been talking about for years."

"We've talked about design standards … but we've never done anything about it," Blackwell added. "No one's telling the community what they're going to be when they grow up."

MLBA president Vern Hellewell attended both Brooks' presentation and the Thursday morning meeting.

"There's a lot there to take in in one time through it," Hellewell said. "I think the second time through, you gain more. It's a good thing for everybody to see."

Goodwin strongly reiterated that sentiment.

"If they want to be involved, if they'd like to have their say in this, they have to attend some of these meetings," she said. "They can't just gripe if they've never been involved."

Kelsh said Brooks will provide a final assessment to the city next week with suggestions based on the initial visits and first impressions, covering where Moses Lake is today. A review and interviews are under way.

Brooks will lead a branding workshop with the city July 21 from 8 a.m. to noon, although no location had been determined yet.

City associate planner Lori Barlow told the gathered audience bids for downtown construction were to be opened at 10 a.m. today. The project will likely be awarded at the city council meeting Tuesday.

Construction is set to begin July 24 and end Nov. 17.

"Everything will be disrupted, there's no other way to get around it," Barlow said. "It's going to be a little chaotic when you have this major construction going on."

Barlow added the city is working with the contractors to allow business owners an opportunity for stability in operating their businesses, such as providing access to each of the shops by noon each day.