By Vesta Copestakes
The majority of my adult life, I have made my living in marketing. I can’t help myself. I just love to market business, etc. So when I see this Low Flow proposal heading our way, I’m like a lot of other Russian River businesses, I freak out! I’m all for the fish, but! Is there a compromise here folks!
I saw that part of the Entrix story that only studied the paddling businesses and never even considered the lodging, dining, service, and retail aspects of our local economy. Yikes! If they are so daft as to look at only one aspect of the human element of river survival, how thoroughly did they study the fish aspect?
One thing I never even thought of was brought up by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. They do the majority of their fundraising for local charities through tourists. What happens to the kids, the music programs, the elder and the AIDS victims when the tourist money goes away? Is this like the federal government telling us that the private sector will take over where the government drops off? Oh yeah. We have the bucks!
As you can see by an item elsewhere in the Gazette, the Russian River Chamber is starting a new program designed to get locals to shop locally to save our suffering businesses. People who work in Santa Rosa, etc. tend to shop there before coming home. Our local economy is already suffering! What next?
The Russian River Chamber is also starting a campaign to market our area to eco-tourists. As we clean up our river, take care of our forests, encourage our birds and fish to thrive, we create a place that is attractive to environmentalist for vacations. We need those people who come here for bits and pieces of time, leave their money and go home! Even if they drive us nuts all summer. They at least leave when the weather turns nasty! We pocket the change and let it keep us alive throughout the winter months. It’s worked for decades.
Now the Board of Supervisors have given us a little more time (until September) to put our ducks in a row to show them what we think is a good path to take to save our declining fish populations as well as keep our economy alive. If any aspect of all this gets you thinking that you like where we live and want to be part of helping every aspect thrive, it’s time to volunteer – get involved.
The Russian River Chamber of Commerce is the most involved in the economic struggle. Become a member, get on a committee, learn about something you can do…shop locally. Contact them at:
Steve Fogle
Executive Director
Russian River Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Centers
16209 First Street
P.O. Box 331
Guerneville, CA 95446
EM: steve@russianriver.com
(707) 869-4097
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