Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Friday, May 09, 2008
Editorial: Tomah wrong to back Fort McCoy Motel
“Wait just a minute”
I am a Tomah man through and through, but you got it wrong this time!
As an owner of multiple businesses in the Tomah area, I feel slapped in the face by the recent lack of support from the City and Chamber of Commerce. How can it possibly be good for Tomah to duplicate what we already have built in Tomah. The City and Chamber must be advocates for the businesses that make up Tomah. We enjoy many amenities in Tomah because of the impact of the troops from Fort McCoy.
It doesn’t take much business savvy to notice the number of soldiers that eat at our restaurants, stay at our motels, attend movies at our theater, exercise at our gyms and buy products at our stores. All of these businesses employ local people and may be financed at local banks. Each of these would suffer without the customer base from Ft. McCoy. And you voted to support a proposal that would encourage those customers to stay on base, please don’t try to help us like that again!
When it comes time to raise money for a program that the city or chamber wants you're never bashful to come to the businesses looking for donations or increase taxes. The most effective way to increase city and Chamber funding is by encouraging people to increase their patronage of the existing local businesses. When businesses prosper they expand, which means more amenities and as businesses grow they pay more taxes, which means more funding. That’s just the way of it in this great land of opportunity.
I am a retired Army officer and fully support our troops, but there was not one amenity being proposed that does not already exist. Let’s all work together to make sure the soldiers and leadership at Fort McCoy is aware of all the activities that are already available. I recently attended a meeting for GameCraze in Warrens that offers, indoor mini-golf, laser tag and indoor rock climbing wall, and a shuttle bus was discussed. Those types of proposals and solutions are a WIN-WIN, it supports existing local businesses and the soldiers.
I have heard many times that the city and Chamber want to encourage new businesses to locate in Tomah. The best way to make that happen is to support and advocate for the businesses that are already here. The word of mouth and excitement that creates within the business community will be the best advertising that Tomah is a good place to do business because they support their own. That is the reputation that will encourage businesses to prosper and want to be here.
I’ve been asked why one of our businesses is not a member of the Chamber of Commerce. It is just this kind of lack of support that keeps me from sending in any more money for memberships.
Brad Kortbein, Tomah, is the owner of Cornerstone Architects.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.