Letter: Needless obstacles slow Ilwaco’s future

Published 3:12 pm Monday, February 26, 2024

Open letter to the Ilwaco City Council:

We are recently retired 38-year residents of Ilwaco, during which time we have observed many — unfortunately, mostly negative — changes to our downtown area.

Although we are very heartened by — and applaud — the recent influx of several new businesses and the energy and commitment of their owners, we are greatly disappointed with the local regulatory obstacles those businesses encounter as they attempt to become established in our town.

We recently attended a community tour of the Doupé building, conducted by owner Abigail Mack, who has spent the last five years (and countless dollars!) restoring this beautiful historic structure at the heart of the downtown core. Although it is difficult to see from the outside (except for the new and much appreciated-paint job), our tour made clear that Abigail and her crew have spent an amazing amount of time, energy and money lovingly shoring up and renovating this large iconic building, one space at a time.

Abigail continues to face many costly and logistical challenges, including recently-discovered water damage at the northwest corner likely caused by a downtown water main break a year ago (for which the city is apparently unwilling to accept any responsibility), an exorbitant sewer fee hook-up fee (even though the building was previously hooked up to sewer), and onerous electrical hook-up fees and upgrade requirements.

So, as a city, we need to decide: Do we want to remain a quiet and sleepy “bedroom community” of the Long Beach Peninsula or do we want to regain our place as the thriving business community we were “back in the day?” If the latter, are we willing to do what it takes to incentivize, assist and support new businesses to bring our empty downtown spaces back to life? And doesn’t the guarantee of many more tax dollars easily justify reducing — or even abating — expensive hook-up fees for these businesses?

We hope the council will openly discuss this question and will act soon to remove the many obstacles business owners face when trying to open or operate their businesses in Ilwaco. The alternative is more of the same or, worse, the exodus of many discouraged entrepreneurs.

ANN and TONY KISCHNER


Ilwaco