For the city of Chehalis, “A Heritage to be Proud Of” is so 2000.
The Rose City — a nickname that could get pruned in coming weeks — now has a new official motto: “Chehalis — Where Heart and History Shape Our Future.”
Coming on the heels of adopting a new city logo a year ago, the Chehalis City Council on Monday night adopted the new motto, which will follow as a tagline to a new nickname, as recommended by the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team.
A recommended nickname — “The Friendly City” — was welcomed with a chilly reception by the City Council. A vote on its approval was put off until the next regularly scheduled council meeting.
Councilor Terry Harris said The Friendly City is too similar to the Southwest Washington Fair’s annual crowning contest for pre-teen girls, the Little Miss Friendly Program, “so the tag ‘friendly’ is not original in that regard.”
But Larry McGee, chairman of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team, seized Harris’ point and said that frequently using the word “friendly” could help the city quickly change how it is perceived.
“It means it’s already institutionalized,” McGee said.
Councilor Isaac Pope noted that “friendly” was once part of Chehalis’ nickname in the 1960s and 1970s, and it certainly didn’t stick. But that could change, he said, with the right kind of promotion.
In 2000, Chehalis adopted “The Rose City” and “A Heritage to be Proud Of” as its official nickname and motto, respectively.
But since implementation of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team in 2009, the nickname and motto have been rendered “outmoded” and without conveyance of the city’s “assets and opportunities.”
However, the Renaissance Team had difficulty coming up with a new nickname since Chehalis doesn’t have a unique characteristic that it is known for. So it decided to create a nickname that residents could buy into over time and create an atmosphere that the city could be associated with.
“We kept coming back to ‘friendly,’” said Frank DeVaul, a member of the Renaissance Team’s subcommittee. “It becomes contagious.”
The City Council, discussing the resolution without the presence of Mayor Tony Ketchum and Councilor Bob Spahr, said it needed more time to consider the proposed nickname.
“You have your tagline,” Councilor Dennis Dawes said of the meantime.
