Lots of attention has appropriately been paid to Centralia's efforts to renovate, restore and revitalize its downtown, with a historical theme.
Notice also that Chehalis has its own downtown historic restoration project under way, which is making strides as well. First appearances can make a major impression on visitors and Chehalis, similar to Centralia, has a program to renovate building facades in its downtown core to conform with the buildings' historical style.
Chehalis has chalked up its first success under the program. A downtown building owned by Harry Pallas was the first to be funded and now is the first project to be completed in the program. We applaud Pallas and the other applicants for their desire to improve their buildings and participation in the program.
And kudos also to the Chehalis Historic Preservation Commission for originating the program and the city of Chehalis for funding it. In June the city council approved $100,000 to be available for projects. The city pays a match of up to 40 percent on a projects between $5,000 and $20,000 and pays all of the cost on those less than $5,000.
To date, the city has received seven applications. The Historic Preservation Commission, which oversees the proposals, has approved six of them, totaling $26,000.
The approved grants include two for Frank and Barbara Mason, with one for the grants for canopies on the front and back of the Vintage Motorcycle Museum and the other for canopies and a paint job for the Washington Hotel. As Barbara Mason points out, an attribute of the facade improvement funding is that it is for the backside of buildings as well as the front.
Another grant is for Fechtner's Jewelry to renovate its marquee and replace its roof with one that's more historically accurate.
Pallas noted the grant applications are simple enough that they should encourage more participation and result in more positive change for the heart of the city.
Another advocate for the grant program and downtown improvement is the city's Community Services Director Joanne Schwartz, who said the program is viewed as "most positive" and "successful" and which has "generated a lot of enthusiasm with the downtown."
CHAMBER BUSINESS: It's unfortunate that an issue has arisen over the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce's very worthwhile "Business After Hours" program hosted by local businesses.
The issue - who was invited to this free monthly event, which this week was at the Southwest Washington Fair - may be because of miscommunication, insufficient information, wrong interpretation or misunderstanding.
Tracey Lowery, community involvement coordinator for the local Wal-Mart store, attends the After Hours events as an ambassador for her store. She says she was told the invitation to the After Hours at the Fairgrounds (a member, as is Wal-Mart, of the chamber) was extended to include companies' employees and their families.
But the chamber in sponsoring the event defers to the hosts' wishes, and, in this case, the Fairgrounds' invitation was intended only for businesses' chamber representatives or managerial staff and not all of their employees, said Fair Manager Gail Sobolesky.
But while this restriction was applied to Wal-Mart, with 380 employees, it apparently was not applied to Providence Centralia Hospital, another chamber member with about 800 employees.
It makes sense that the hosting businesses should have the discretion to limit their invitations, especially a public entity such as the Fairgrounds, owned and operated by Lewis County government. It doesn't seem reasonable that 380 Wal-Mart or 800 Providence employees should get into the fair free when the rest of the public must pay.
But if the Fair limited the guest list, it should have applied equally to all businesses - to Providence as well as Wal-Mart, if it wasn't.
One hopes that any unfair treatment or misunderstandings will be cleared up and the chamber's After Hours can get back to business as usual.
The chamber has much too important work to do in promoting business interests and a better economy in the area to be side-tracked by this sort of controversy.
