Wilson Creek to go online

WSU intern assisting town in bid to spread the word

WILSON CREEK — Not a lot of people know about Wilson Creek, but that could soon change.

With the assistance of a Washington State University student working as an intern, the town of Wilson Creek is making the effort to spread the word about its recreational and business opportunities.

Steve Smith, through WSU's MBA program, is working with the Town of Wilson Creek in an advisory and intern position to design a Web page, graphic artwork for signs and brochures around town and for walking path, and will present a business analysis of the town.

"The Web page, we thought, would be really good," Wilson Creek Mayor Kathy Bohnet said. "People would like to know what the town has to offer. We have a lot to offer for possible economic development."

Wilson Creek's strengths include many of the same things that Quincy possesses, Bohnet said, referring to the Grant County city which is seeing a lot of development following decisions earlier this year by Microsoft Network and Yahoo! to locate data centers there.

Wilson Creek assets include low power rates, being 100 percent wired for fiber, reasonable land prices, a good school and quality of life, Bohnet said.

"The thing to deal with it is to get people to know about Wilson Creek," Smith said, pointing to a walking path the town will add this fall thanks to a $156,000 federal enhancement grant, and the town's skate park and playground, as draws for families with children and people who get out and walk.

"It's something to bring people and keep them here," he said, also pointing to the town's nearby bird watching and nature areas. "We're saying Wilson Creek has these beautiful things in it and around it, come and visit it."

The town's small town feel is another strength, Smith said, noting he took photographs of people standing in the middle of the street talking when he first arrived in town.

"You don't see that anywhere," he said, pointing to Bohnet as still another local asset. "She has vision, and that is something that's really hard to find nowadays … She is really just focused on getting this town to keep its small town feel, but allow more people to enjoy that."

Bohnet added that the town wants to also preserve the businesses it does have while looking for new businesses, and the Web site will showcase them.

"We'd like to be help them be able to make a good living here," she said, adding that when it comes to potential new businesses, "everyone" in town "wants a restaurant to open in the worst way."

The university's masters in business administrations, or MBA, program requires every student to have an internship and through a new program designed to help small businesses fund part of a fully paid intern, WSU-Tri-Cities set up internships for all 20, including Smith, who began work in May.

"Since my background is computer science art, I thought, 'Well, it's a perfect match,'" Smith said, noting his parents live in Ephrata, and so he grew up around the area, and was a little familiar with Wilson Creek. "They're getting a deal, too; they're getting a professional-level person or a person trying to get to professional level working for them, at usually greatly reduced prices."

"My parents used to drive this route before I-90 went all the way to Spokane, so we used to go through this town a lot," Smith said.

He visited town about five times, taking pictures and interviewing people, and spent many hours working on his laptop.

The Web site does not yet have an address, while Smith is also working on signs for the walking path and brochures, which will include historical photographs, with the intent of wrapping everything up and turning it over to the city in the beginning of July.

For the business analysis, Smith said he uses the "SWOT" method, looking at the town as a business and identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Strengths include low power, low land prices, available lots and a link right to to the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railway.

A weakness is that "no one really knows about it," Smith said, adding that a person driving through downtown Wilson Creek may initially think it's barren, a possible deterrent to business.

Opportunities and threats come from outside sources, with opportunities including a possible recreational vehicle park and threats possibly including another nearby town advertising its own competing RV park, or the price of gas dropping down again, meaning the nearby railroad link loses its strength as people go back to truck line shipping.

Bohnet explained that the state's Department of Community Trade and Economic Development requires such an analysis in order to apply for certain grants. The town's part of the cost is part of the grant for the town's walking path, she said.