Thursday, October 1, 2026
WENATCHEE — The people who came to the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority meeting on Jan. 27 arrived carrying the momentum of the previous evening’s packed Jan. 26 Cashmere City Council meeting, where residents learned how limited city authority can be when a development proposal meets zoning and legal requirements.
Before public comment began, Port of Chelan Commissioner JC Baldwin addressed what she suspected had brought many people into the room.
“I have a feeling a lot of you, I think I know the reason a lot of you are here,” Baldwin said. “We did have some information yesterday from NNN Development that the Dollar General Store is not interested in going into Cashmere and it was because there’s not enough traffic on Sunset.”
From the front row, Cashmere resident Beth Beck asked, “Should we clap?” Baldwin replied, “I would.” The room did.
With the immediate controversy gone, several residents still took the microphone, not to protest a project that was no longer moving forward, but to explain why they had felt blindsided in the first place, and to ask for more transparency if surplus Mill District parcels are marketed again in the future.
Andy Thomas, who introduced himself as “a Cashmere resident, father and business owner,” told commissioners he and his wife launched Side Street four years ago with the goal of creating a locally rooted “micro-economy” in an abandoned 60,000-square-foot building.
“In the last year and a half, we’ve opened 12 new businesses,” Thomas said. “They’re all owned by people in Cashmere, hiring people in Cashmere, and sourcing goods and materials to a neighbor.”
Thomas said the idea was not to pretend Cashmere could avoid major corporations altogether, but to give local businesses the best possible chance to keep dollars circulating locally first.
“We set out to create a micro-economy where your money can exchange hands six times in our building before it goes to a corporation, which we know it will,” he said. “We’re not immune to the fact that it’ll end up at Walmart or Amazon or Costco or Home Depot or somewhere else. That’s fine.”
He credited local leadership, including the Port and Mayor Jim Fletcher, with preserving the kind of community people want to live in.
“Mayor Fletcher in Cashmere has done an extremely good job, and the Port has done an extremely good job of maintaining and preserving our community in a certain way that makes us want to move there and raise families,” Thomas said.
Even with Dollar General no longer in play, Thomas said he wanted residents to have clearer notice and a clearer lane for input in the future.
“I’m here just asking that we don’t feel like we get blindsided again,” he said. “If anything goes in, or if that land comes up for sale again … we’d be happy to present those ideas to you.”
He closed by underscoring the tone he hoped would define the conversation going forward.
“We’re not trying to pick a fight,” Thomas said. “We just ask for a little bit more transparency next time. You’re doing great.”
Baldwin responded appreciatively.
“Thank you, everybody. I appreciate it,” she said. “And I know for one I’m very appreciative of what you’ve done out there.”
She said the Port wants to have conversations with local leadership about the community’s goals for the site and confirmed the parcel remains available.
“You should know that that piece of property has been surplused previously by the board,” Baldwin said. “So it is for sale.”
Sharon Ruffer, a Cashmere resident, told commissioners she wanted future decisions to align with the community’s values, particularly when it comes to wages, hiring, and local accountability.
“As a mom and a person who cares deeply about Cashmere, we want to make sure that our dollars that we’re spending there are staying in Cashmere as much as we can,” Ruffer said. “We want to make sure that the businesses that come into our town are truly caring about who’s coming as their customers, about who they’re hiring.”
Ruffer said she had been researching public investments connected to the mill site and raised questions about county grant funding that supported infrastructure upgrades there, which she believed was intended to support outcomes such as affordable housing or “family wage jobs.”
“I know that the Port was awarded a grant by the Chelan County Cascade Public Infrastructure Fund for I believe $282,000 and some change,” she said. “I would love more information about that … just so that we can really understand what dollars went into it and trying to make sure that we fulfill what those dollars were meant to be towards.”
In public records, that grant totals $244,600 and was awarded in August 2023 for infrastructure improvements including waterline extensions, stormwater drainage and road-related work to make the Cashmere Mill Site business park more viable for future tenants. The grant was focused on infrastructure and was not tied to any specific tenant, parcel, or type of business.
Ruffer said she was relieved the store was no longer moving forward.
“I applaud NNN Development for deciding to not move forward,” she said.
She also referenced the organizing that followed the Jan. 26 City Council meeting.
“We have collected over 180 signatures of residents in Cashmere that would have promised to boycott Dollar General if it were to come,” Ruffer said, adding that her concern extended beyond one retailer to “any business that carries those types of practices.”
Beth Beck told commissioners she hoped residents could have a voice earlier in the process next time.
“I just want to say the same thing that Andy and Sharon did,” Beck said. “We would like to have some comment as far as what businesses come in there and we hope that it is a family locally-owned business that can support the community and that we would all want to go to and appreciate.”
In less than 24 hours, Cashmere residents had moved from a packed and frustrated City Hall meeting to a quieter, more reflective conversation at the Port.
They did not leave with a fight to fight.
They left with something harder, and maybe more important: a clearer picture of how decisions move through the system, and a shared determination to show up earlier next time — before plans arrive fully formed, before the room fills with worry, and before a small town has to wonder whether it is still being invited to help choose its own future.
Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media
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