A letter from a Concerned Citizen

To the People of La Grange,

      Let me start off by saying, "I love La Grange."  I have spent the last few weeks listening to people complain about the high price of gas and I got to thinking: If you can remember when gas was .39 or .49 a gallon, then you can also remember when La Grange had multiple grocery stores, barbers shops, restaurants, bakery's, gas stations, clothing shops, furniture stores, even a newspaper.

      But, gas was cheap and Quincy had so many more stores.  As more and more people spent their money elsewhere, local businesses were forced to close their doors.

      In 1900 there were more than 50 businesses in town, as well as a grade school, high school, and a college. My what a difference a hundred years can make.

      Many of you continued to support our local shops, but many didn't, and, by 1980, we were down to 42 businesses on Main Street.  We had lost our high school and our college and the trains no longer stopped here.  Still, almost everyone was working and things were cheaper in Quincy.

      The flood of ‘93 took four more businesses, but by then we had already lost 20 more due to lack of support and that left us with only 18.  Four new ones have opened up which brings us up to 22, but that is still less than ½ of what we had 100 years ago.  These 22 places pump approximately $50 to $75,000 in taxes and licenses into our city and county.  We can't afford to lose any more.  Instead of complaining about gas prices, check out your hometown.  Did you know that you can get copies made at the Post Office, Casey's has some of the lowest gas prices in the area, if you don't like to pump your own gas, Arnold will do it for you, the liquor store has bread for .75 as well as other groceries, that you can get your hair fixed and a beautiful bouquet of flowers at the same time at Karla's & Carmen's, or that Wilma's has delicious tacos for a buck and a half on Monday's?  Did you know that every Easter our bank gives the children money at the Easter egg hunts?  Or that our Dental and Medical Clinic both give excellent care.  Did you know that we have an antique shop here or that the ice cream shop sells much more than ice cream?  Tony's Garage also does inspections and Double G's is a nice place to go with your friends.  Breakfast can be found at the Driftwood Café and Mark Rienebach can take care of all of your insurance needs.  So the next time you want to complain about gas prices, take a trip to downtown La Grange and visit our local businesses, they might have just what you're looking for, and maybe even cheaper than Quincy.  If we don't support our local businesses now, they won't be here when gas gets even higher.

I received this unsigned letter and decided to post it as some people actually are sorry to see the City change. I believe that more can be said on the subject of lost businesses. I did a study of old phone books and newspapers I found starting around 1950. The business count in 1965 when a few La Grange Citizens decided our school was not good enough for them and the business count in 1972 after we lost our high school. There was a loss of businesses.

When the school board took the junior high classes, more business quit.

When they took everything but the grade school, more businesses quit.

And when they took our grade school, more businesses quit.

Yet, even today, the people who promoted the Lewis County C-1 School still say it is the best thing ever done.

Each and every year that grades from our school were taken/given away, the people of La Grange saw more business lost, yet the promoters of this still say it is the best thing for La Grange.

In addition to the above letter, the writer failed to mention Tiemann's MFA. That station has been in business for over 50 years. Even though his gas is a little more than Casey's, he is still lower than Quincy and almost on par with West Quincy. But, he is always there for oil changes and the like and especially tires and batteries.

Another item the writer missed is the lack of support from so called leaders of the City and Chamber. Once in awhile you might see one or two support Casy's, but as far supporting any other business in town, you never see them. Well, you will see a Chamber officer when dues are collected.

In regards to the Casino, the Mayor and Council have refused to discuss letting the people of La Grange benefit from the coming millions from the Casino by eliminating real and personal property taxes. (less than $40,000 per year). They have refused to talk about building a new City owned Library. Almost all of the proposed budget goes to the Police Department next year. Very little goes to first responders and the fire department.

And, for some unknown reason, our Mayor and City Council have been struck by Aliens from the X-Files that makes them oblivious as to the damage to the businesses of the town that my buddy the Chief has done. His efforts has single handedly caused the loss of 50% or more of business to what businesses that are left.

Finally, many people of La Grange absolutely have no idea what kind of and how many businesses are actually in La Grange.

Let's see if you can name all the businesses in town and operating today? Include home based businesses.

Jerry