The Washington Chamber has been working with our community members and businesses to encourage the Washington County Supervisors to reconsider their plans to relocate the bulk of their county offices to the west edge of town at Orchard Hill. We believe that the loss of employees and supplemental foot traffic will be detrimental to our local businesses.

Last night we had a Listening Session with approximately 90 people in attendance and 100% of them were in support of looking at options to remain in downtown. Tonia was there representing the Kalona Chamber and I know Ron has attended some of our brainstorming sessions, which are both HUGE to get the support from our neighboring community in Kalona.

I know that all of you work tirelessly to bring people to your community and you know how hard the competition is from Johnson County and online shopping. I believe that when we work together as a region, we are all better and stronger. 

If you share this sentiment, I would greatly appreciate letters of support from our neighboring communities and businesses that we can present to the Supervisors. If you believe they should remain downtown, that is great. Or, you can simply share similar pain points in how much we invest to keep ourselves relevant and bring people to Washington County.

We are asking to be on the agenda this upcoming Tuesday and I thank you in advance for your consideration. Feel free to send your letter of support to the Washington Chamber and we would be happy to present it on your behalf, or if you send it directly to the Supervisors, I would appreciate being aware of that. If the letters could be received by the end of this week, that would be helpful in planning our speaking points.

While last night made it very clear that there is a lot of confusion about the project, I"m including some generic information and links below in case you want to familiarize yourself. 

Thanks again for your consideration. We believe that what is good for downtown Washington is good for Washington County as a whole.

Submitted by:  Michelle Redlinger Executive Director, Washington Chamber of Commerce