Tuesday, April 6th

Another day, more progress!

Spring time in Ellensburg is a very interesting time.

The CWU student body is making their last push for the year before breaking for summer, restoration projects in town start to multiply, more families walk around during the weekend, and business owners start adding to their store fronts.

Most everyone has potted flowers in front of their store front. Others put in new lighting or local art in their windows.

It's a community that really commemorates the coming of sun!

Today we spent the day interviewing and being interviewed.

We started the day by interviewing on 88.1 FM, The Burg along side our advisor, Timothy Bishop. For those that may not be aware of the station, it's a radio station located on the CWU campus and acts as a college radio station. Here's a link to their site: 88.1 The 'Burg

We were on for about thirty minutes talking about our project and the progress we've made thus far, what we're going to accomplish, and other information.

If you missed the interview, or we unable to hear it, request it here: Email Chris Hull. Let Chris know you want to hear it and they'll get it arranged.

Right after that we conducted a conference call with Doug Loescher, Director of the National Trust Main Street Center. Mr. Loescher provided great information about Main Street programs, their intentions, the trends seen nationally, and kind of effort and vision it takes to shape a community.

Not too long after we were talking with Jeff Milchen of the American Independent Business Alliance. Our discussion revolved around the experience of an independent business, how it must separate itself from chain competition, what the effects of the recession have truly been, and what have been the major challenges in networking businesses with one another.

After that, we broke for dinner and then headed over to Bailey's Bibliomania and interviewed John and Mary Varner.

This set of interviews went extremely well, both John and Mary are characters who really add to the culture that is Main Street. Their story is uniquely theirs, but it's one that many can relate to nationwide.

We still have a few more preliminary interviews to go, but as we are closing out that chapter, we will be opening another. And that involves more photography. This time we'll be taking photos of each business owner and the second part to this will be photographing the businesses doing what they do most, and that's being open for business!

Yes, spring time sure is interesting in Ellensburg.

Until we meet again!