To the Editor,

This example was provided to the city council last week, but didn’t specify what items were purchased locally and out of town. 

I was informed by one councilman and one  person from the Willow Creek Commission that there was going to be a presentation at the October council meeting showing how much they can save by cutting back on local shopping. 

First of all, I am curious about how much taxpayer money was spent for this study and how it is recorded in the Willow Creek books? It had to be a decent amount as I heard at least 30 copies were sent out. Paper, ink, stamps, envelopes, labor to attend meetings, gas, shopping (buying duplicates of everything), etc. B&Ds was never notified or asked any questions or opinions.

From “one” meal comparison they were able to state that they could save over $53,000 a year by shopping out of town! They must be using “Old Mayor Math” where you manipulate the numbers to coerce the council into believing that is the way to go! How do you save that much when they have never spent more than $15,000 at B&Ds in a year the previous 20 years?

Also, they accused us of letting other people besides Willow Creek employees  charge groceries to their account—we have been running the same system for almost 20 years and now they are nit-picking because Mary signed a charge ticket “peas & carrots” (or didn’t  even sign one, they got the receipt anyway). They suggested we card or see a Willow Creek badge before letting someone get groceries, as if in our town of 800, we don’t know who most of our customers are?

I agree with the Mayor when he says instead of trying to find fault in the little things, why not concentrate on filling the empty beds in Willow Creek, working harder, selling more services, and raising revenue—then many more good things will come from that!

  That way they won’t have to nit-pick at our local businesses that are working hard to stay active in the community.

We do want to say a big thank you to all of our loyal dedicated customers that are keeping us in town.

  At these savings (pictured above) it will only take a little over 200 years to help cover 1/3rd of the existing Willow Creek debt!

Thank you, 

Doug and Mary Trana, 

B&Ds Foods