The Moses Lake-Othello Association of REALTORS presented MLBA Board Member Vern Hellewell with the Citizen of the Year 2009 Award and MLBA Board President Rich Engelmann with the Realtor Community Service 2009 Award.  Congratulations to all of you!  Thanks you very much for all you do for Moses Lake!

Rep. Bill Hinkle - Co Sponsor House Bill 2704 

Senator Janea Holmquist - Co Sponsor of Senate Bill 6507

Rep. Judy Warnick - Longtime Supporter of Main Street Program 

Please join in this effort in the following ways:

ð        Join the group on Facebook called Supporting Main Street in Washington State at http://www.facebook.com/EllensburgDowntown#/group.php?gid=233019454367&ref=m 

ð       Call our Legislators and tell them thank you for their support:

·         Senator Janea Holmquist (360) 786-7624 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

·         Rep Bill Hinkle (360) 786-7808 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

·         Rep Judy Warnick (360) 786-7932 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

ð       Join MLBA's Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/laketownlanding

ð       Please let your friends know how important Main Street is to Washington's economy and your community, and invite them to join our efforts.

Thank You! 

Marianne Bondi

Executive Director, MLBA

(509) 764-1745

So much attention has been focused on Wall Street over the past year that the accomplishments of Washington’s Main Streets have been lost in the din.  If small businesses are leading the recovery, they are certainly leading the revitalization of many communities in our state.  What do Port Townsend, Walla Walla, Ellensburg, and Mount Vernon have in common?  They all participate in the Washington Main Street Program, which since 1991 has helped these and other communities create 11,810 jobs in 3,721 new and expanded businesses.  Private investment of $413 million has helped fuel this revitalization.  Every $1 invested in the program by the State of Washington has leveraged an average of $96 in private investment. 

In an effort to balance the state’s budget in the face of mounting deficits, Governor Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget would eliminate the Washington State Main Street Program (WSMSP), which serves more than 90 organizations representing communities throughout the state. The Main Street program’s budget was already cut by 75% as part of the 2009 budgeting process leaving just one staff person and a state general fund budget of about $120,000 to serve all of the communities participating in the state’s Main Street network.

As a relatively young program, the Ellensburg Downtown Association became a Main Street town in 2007, and credits its success to the strong building support of the state program.  “We’ve had 20 new businesses open in our downtown in 2009 despite the economy and our first new business of 2010 opened in the first week of January”, according to Association President Mary Young-Ness.  “We understand the need to balance the state budget against mounting deficits, but eliminating an economic development program that’s demonstrated this level of success, just doesn’t make sense when we’re talking about the need to grow our economy.”

Ellensburg Downtown Association Executive Director, Timothy Bishop, shares the president’s concerns.  “We’ve seen a tremendous impact in Downtown Ellensburg as a direct result of the Washington Main Street over the last few years.”  “It’s devastating to think that in our efforts to save $120,000 in the state’s budget that we would eliminate such a critically important and successful economic development program as Main Street.”