It’s not often a single quote in a story I write can prompt me to type out a column like this, but I had to get right on this after I compiled my story on Fruffels moving away from downtown Centralia.
As I reported in Wednesday’s edition of The Chronicle, Fruffels co-owner David Kiedrowski cited a lack of traffic to his store and said business had been bad for “awhile.” He went on to vent his frustration, saying he felt the city was doing more to draw freeway traffic to businesses directly off Interstate 5 rather than bringing them downtown.
His quote made me wonder about past and present efforts to draw people downtown, and while I drove to an interview in Chehalis Thursday afternoon I deviated from my usual route down Kresky Avenue and drove down Interstate 5. That’s when a memory hit me.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m positive Chamber Way and at least part, if not all, of the Kresky/National corridor through Chehalis and Centralia was signed as an I-5 business loop for quite some time. I’m not sure what happened to it, but as I traveled through the area yesterday I didn’t see any green I-5 shields that would be indicative of a business loop.
To put it simply, a business loop or business route is a designated street or system of streets designed to bring travelers downtown and back to the interstate in relatively simple fashion. I’d put money down that Chehalis had one at some point, and I know Castle Rock (of all places) has one or had one in the recent past.
I called up Abbi Russell, communications manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Southwest Division out of Vancouver, and she told me Friday morning she hadn’t found any evidence of the existence of a business loop through Chehalis. But what she did tell me was interesting: in many instances, the business route through a town especially along the I-5 corridor historically served as U.S. Highway 99 before the freeway was built.
That makes sense to me, and it seems WSDOT may have been making a good faith effort to at least draw some motorists off the freeway back to towns that for all intents and purposes were bypassed in their entirety by I-5. But, as Russell later told me, many times the option is left to local governments to decide whether to keep a business loop or get rid of it.
I don’t see any green I-5 shields anywhere, so with the lack of a business route, what option is left?
There is the Motorist Information System, WSDOT’s technical term for all those blue signs we see roughly three-quarters of a mile from the next exit showing where motorist services exist. There are plenty of those in the Twin Cities, but what about something to draw people to the shops in downtown Centralia or Chehalis? Those usually aren’t eligible for the MIS unless they qualify as a “tourist attraction,” and that’s another issue entirely.
Personally, I hearken back to when I lived in Springfield, Mo., from 2007 to 2009, and a contentious topic was the city of roughly 185,000 spending taxpayer money for wayfinding signs to guide people off the freeways and highways, and into important historic and economic areas of town. The Springfield City Council greenlighted the signs, and I saw them in use on my recent visit there. But they looked different than your normal freeway signs with the standard lettering and colors, which led me to believe the city had to negotiate with the Missouri Department of Transportation to even install them in the first place.
Next week, I’ll continue a look at the issue of drawing travelers downtown from the freeway, with personal ideas on how to grab the attention of drivers through the I-5 corridor (and the possibility of feedback from this column itself, perhaps).
Here are a couple notes as I empty my notebook this Monday morning:
• The Lewis County Association of Realtors has announced its upcoming schedule for their previously announced Tax Fairs, in which Lewis County Assessor Dianne Dorey and representatives from the LCAR will share information on the county’s new annual property revaluation process and home market conditions across the area.
The meetings, which are all slated to begin at 6:30 p.m., are as follows: March 8, Winlock High School; March 15, Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis; March 16, Salkum Timberland Library; March 23, Toledo Elementary School; March 24, Adna Middle/High School; April 12, Napavine High School; April 14, Pe Ell School; and April 20 at White Pass High School.
For more information, call the LCAR at 623-1065.
• A Tenino doctor joins a Centralia doctor in service on the managing board of the Physicians of Southwest Washington after the association’s recent elections.
Dr. Leyton Jump, M.D., of Tenino Family Practice was elected to a two-year term effective immediately. Jump joins Dr. Paul Williams, M.D., of Washington Park Medical Center in Centralia as the only local members on the board.
The Physicians of Southwest Washington has 13 members on its board, serving in locations from Olympia to Centralia. Physicians of Southwest Washington, LLC is an independent physicians association established in 1995 with a stated mission to coordinate and maximize patient quality of care, provide continuity of health plan and provider coverage to patients, assure that local providers control utilization management decisions, and ensure providers are paid fairly and promptly for services.
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Christopher Brewer writes Behind the Business Beat each Monday for The Chronicle’s Life: Business section. Please contact him with news from your business or story ideas at (360) 807-8235 or by e-mailing cbrewer@chronline.com.
