business backgrounder | economy
Complex Fire burned homes, cabins and businesses around the
shores of Lake Chelan.
“We broke a record in July for the most sales tax the city had
ever seen — $200,000 from the lodging tax. Then, in August, no
business.”
Steele credits his chamber’s $200,000 TV and radio
marketing campaign west of the mountains for a September
sales and lodging tax bounce-back of between 8-10 percent.
After a burn, a landscape is spare but eerily beautiful, says
Roni Holder-Diefenbach, executive director of the Okanogan
County Economic Alliance. They hope to use that hook to lure
tourists back. And they’re already bracing for an onslaught of
mushroom hunters. The prized morel mushroom sprouts in
abundance after a burn, she said.
jobs
Figures from regional labor economist Don Meseck show that
employment in both Chelan and Okanogan counties remained
ahead of 2014, despite the fires, but tourism-related job growth
slowed to a crawl July through September, the months most
affected by fires.
Making payroll was the top concern of 216 Okanogan
County businesses surveyed in the fires’ aftermath, HolderDiefenbach said.
“If you’re a business reliant on tourism and you have a
month and a half when no one is walking through your doors,
it’s hard to make ends meet,” she said. “And it’s a trickle-down
effect. If you can’t pay your employees, they can’t shop in the
community.”
eastern washington in flames
A wildfire “complex” is a group of wildfires burning in a similar region that are managed by a single team. Between Aug. 10 and
Aug. 14, 121 wildfires were reported statewide. That coincided with widespread lightning strikes across the region, but not all fires
in each complex were lightning caused. Here’s a list of the biggest:
Stevens Complex
Stevens County
63,972
Okanogan Complex*
Okanogan County
522,920
Kettle Complex
Ferry County
Chelan Complex
Chelan County
122,845
76,392
Kaniksu Complex
Pend Oreille County
26,120
Grizzly Bear Complex
Walla Walla County
80,725
Source: Gov. Jay Inslee’s emergency aid-request letter to President Barack Obama
40 association of washington business