Tawny Starr-Higgins, Rico’s Public House owner, said in a post that the City of Pullman is asking downtown businesses to pay 10 times more for an outdoor lease than last year, and requiring they carry $2 million in extra insurance coverage for outdoor seating.

For Starr-Higgins, this would result in coverage costs of over $1,000 per month to be doubled.

Downtown businesses were informed of this increase beforehand and have been working with the city to try and decrease the cost, Starr-Higgins said.

“The City Council had this particular agenda item up, and we had gone to that meeting and said that we vigorously disapproved and the City Council had asked the city to please try to come up with a better plan,” she said. “So we’ve been waiting a couple of months. I guess technically it was better because the city started at $3 million, so I guess $2 million is better. Still, considering the size of most businesses, it was just out of proportion to what we make.”

This is likely being done as part of city efforts to limit their liability and insulate themselves in the event of accidents or injuries from which they might get sued.

Regarding the issue of the leases, Star-Higgins said for her this is a resolved issue as she leaves her tables and chairs outside for the whole year during the day and at night for about $235 in yearly rent. However, for downtown businesses as a whole, they are still looking for a better deal.

“If Brused Books wanted to roll out a cart of books per day, they would have to pay the exact same fee and I don’t think that’s very reasonable,” she said. “So we are still coming back and asking them to work on the details of this because I don’t think you can apply a one-size-fits-all fee. For those smaller businesses that use their outdoor [space] every day, that was just a big ask.”

As this can make having outdoor spaces complicated, some business owners like Noshies owner Willow Falcon have had to take matters into their own hands.

“I did some recent renovations and one of the things I chose to do since they were big renovations was to recede the front of the building back from the sidewalk edge about three feet so that my building would have its own outdoor space,” she said. “I have been outside and using the sidewalk and had city staff come by and I could sense that there would be problems if I wanted to use the sidewalk space. And one of the things I chose to do was to own my own space.”

As not all can choose to do this, Falcon said she “feels bad for anybody who would like to use the outdoor space and is meeting unneeded challenges from the city.”

Starr-Higgins said there are factors outside of the city’s control that impact its decisions,  such as higher minimum wage than places like Moscow and not being able to shut down Main Street for events. Still, this should not get in the way of the City allowing downtown to flourish as it should.

The city’s efforts not only make it difficult to conduct business but also likely make it difficult for customers and members of the public to enjoy downtown as they should, Falcon said.

“That whole vibe is shut down with the City staff kind of being like ‘We don’t want the sidewalk used.’ [It feels a] little bit discouraging,” she said. “It’s also public use. I know the public would like to be able to use the outdoor space in a commercial setting, so I felt like that was left out of the conversation.”

Those who wish to support downtown businesses at this time are encouraged to advocate to members of the City Council as well as choose to do businesses with shops and restaurants downtown, Star-Higgins said.

“If you want stores, they’re open late. If you want different places to go, all that really relies on a viable downtown because towns grow from the downtown and out,” she said. “They could also just help spend money in Pullman.  There are so many great things to do in Pullman.”