Since holding The Cluttered Closet Boutique’s grand reopening on North Tower Avenue in Centralia last summer, co-owner Madison “Maddie” Horn has been able to keep her business running, but not without a few issues.
Those problems include a lack of safe, adequate parking and city trash cans, cars speeding down North Tower Avenue and homeless people causing trouble, she said.
She brought up some of these problems at the beginning of the year when she met with both a City of Centralia staff member and a Centralia Downtown Association (CDA) representative.
“We sat down together and talked about these concerns. Since then, I have not heard anything about it,” Horn said.
Horn has now started an online petition to gather support to encourage the City of Centralia to address her concerns, improve North Tower Avenue and expand Centralia’s overall downtown area.
This petition comes as another North Tower Avenue business, Pioneer West Garden and Pet Center, announced it is moving to the Centralia Outlets on Lum Road. The business originally opened in 1927 as a feed and seed store.
“Due to multiple recent break-ins, changes in the pet and plant industries and the current challenges in running a small business, we have made the difficult decision to close our location on Tower Avenue,” the business stated in a Facebook post last week.
Cluttered Closet is located south of Pioneer West and just north of the Centralia Historic Downtown District. Despite only being separated by one block, the two areas have glaring differences, Horn said.
“Most businesses down here are owned by lower middle class people. There’s also a huge Hispanic community and a lot of low-income housing,” Horn said. “Just to think that down here is treated so differently compared to up there, it leads to so many different conclusions.”
From getting Christmas lights wrapped around the light poles or the CDA’s spring flower baskets, which adorn many businesses in the Centralia Historic Downtown District, Horn said it has been a struggle to try to get those seasonal enhancements in her area.
Another more dangerous issue is cars speeding down North Tower Avenue, as the lack of nearby accessible parking and crosswalks leaves many of her customers sprinting across the road trying to dodge traffic, she said.
“From Bethel Church going down South Tower, those crosswalks are 280 feet apart, while our crosswalks down here are 700 feet apart,” Horn added. “... It definitely makes us feel treated differently. I’m not saying they’re going out of their way to do that, but they’re definitely leaving out a huge part of the community.”
Additionally, the sidewalks in the area are in dire need of repair as many are cracked and uneven, posing accessibility issues to those with disabilities and the elderly, Horn said.
Though Pioneer West has had break-ins, Horn said Cluttered Closet hasn’t been broken into, although some shoplifting has occurred.
“We have a lot of homeless people here, which isn’t a bad thing. They’re usually great,” Horn said. “But, lately, the population has been growing with aggressive addicts or people who are mentally ill, it’s starting to get more dangerous than it was before.”
Before co-owning Cluttered Closet, Horn operated as a local vendor on North Tower Avenue at another business for a couple years.
As for the issues Horn is trying to generate awareness about, CDA Board President Hallie Ralls explained to The Chronicle that the CDA’s full coverage area does include the North Tower Avenue area.
“We go all the way up North and South Tower, and all the way out Main Street to Harrison, as well,” Ralls told The Chronicle in a phone call.
However, Ralls said the City of Centralia considers the downtown area to be within the boundaries of the Centralia Historic Downtown District, which encompasses around five city blocks along Tower Avenue and Pearl Street.
And while the CDA handles the spring flower basket program along with clean-up events in the downtown area, the organization — with the exception of its executive director — is made up entirely of volunteers.
Ralls added they often don’t have enough volunteers to carry out projects throughout the entire coverage area.
Other North Tower Avenue businesses have shared concerns with the CDA, as well.
During its board retreat earlier this year, board members agreed they wanted to focus more on the areas outside the city’s historic downtown district, Ralls said.
“One of the things we set out to do was to help expand that downtown mindset, the love from the community, to all the edges. Those outer districts that I mentioned earlier don't necessarily get that downtown attention that a lot of people think of,” Ralls said.
Additionally, the CDA hosted a safety meeting in September to offer businesses help with getting safety grants from them — five of which are still available and one of which was awarded to Pioneer West this year.
The grants are good for up to a 50% match up to $1,000 to help pay for business security upgrades including lights, locks, surveillance cameras and security gates.
“There are a lot of things that aren’t in our jurisdiction,” Ralls added.
As for the sidewalks in disrepair, lack of crosswalks and trash cans, and issues with speeders and those experiencing homelessness, Ralls stated she had been in talks with City of Centralia officials about these issues.
“Unfortunately, those processes just take time and funding,” Ralls said. “… I personally am a neighbor on the north end. I walk the area past Madison’s store frequently, and I do want to see the area improved.”
The Chronicle also contacted interim Centralia City Manager Amy Buckler, and she also shared a desire to improve the North Tower Avenue area.
“At the same time, our city faces a challenge with budget constraints. We are seeking to harness opportunities as they arise,” Buckler said in an email.
She added city staff are actively looking for potential grant opportunities to add in more crosswalks and enhance the streetscape in the area.
The City of Centralia is facing an estimated $1.2 million budget deficit.
Though a property tax increase and city fee and permitting increases were approved earlier this month by the Centralia City Council on first reading, some budget cuts will still have to be made to balance the city’s next biennial budget.
Without the tax and fee increases, city staff said the cuts would most likely be made to the street, parks and police departments.
“In the meantime, we’ll continue to prioritize public safety measures, like police presence, to support our local businesses and maintain community safety,” Buckler said.
For more information on the petition Horn started or to sign it, visit https://linktr.ee/theclutteredclosetboutique.
To learn more and apply for a CDA safety grant or other grants it offers, visit https://downtowncentralia.org/grants. For more information on volunteering for the CDA along with dates and times the CDA holds meetings, visit https://downtowncentralia.org/volunteer.
The map of the Centralia Historic Downtown District can be found at https://tinyurl.com/mc52m4n8.
