Bridgeport Christmas tree lighting scheduled for Dec. 1

ommerce will kick off the Christmas season with a Christmas tree lighting ceremony Monday, Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m. at the Bouska Square park on Main Street in Bridgeport. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be on hand; there's the chance of some Christmas carols and Chamber members will serve hot chocolate.

In addition, the Chamber is sponsoring a snowflake contest, the classic snowflakes cut from a piece of paper. All the entrants will receive an ice cream cone, courtesy of Nell's Cafe; the winner will receive a toboggan donated by Bridgeport True Value Hardware and the Chamber, while the second, third and fourth place snowflakes win ribbons. The winning snowflakes will be posted at Bridgeport City Hall, with other entries in Chamber businesses around town.

In other business at the general membership meeting Friday, Nov. 14, Chamber members approved a new promotion designed to encourage Bridgeport residents to shop locally.

The "Give Bridgeport the Business" campaign will start with buttons; eventually flyers (in English and Spanish) will be distributed promoting the idea of shopping in town, said Chamber president Charlene Knox. The promotional flyers point out that shopping locally saves fuel costs and promotes business expansion in town, as well as increasing the city's sales tax revenue. Almost everything residents need is available in town, Knox said, and the idea is to promote Bridgeport businesses as the first option.

Students from Bridgeport High School's computer and business classes will build and print the flyers.

Jody Steele was appointed chair of the Chamber's new membership committee; Knox said 13 business and individual members have joined up in the last month. In her opinion it's important to have individuals as well as businesses involved, Knox said, and she's looking for ideas that will help make the pitch to Bridgeport residents. She said Chamber officers are also looking for somebody to serve as vice-president; right now, that would just involve chairing meetings when the president is out of town.

Douglas County Sheriff Harvey Gjesdal attended the meeting to talk about crime, crime prevention and trends in law enforcement in Bridgeport. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement services for Bridgeport.

The subject came up at an earlier Chamber meeting; one of the attendees at that meeting said they heard some pretty negative opinions about Bridgeport during a trip to the Puget Sound area, especially Bridgeport's reputation as hotspot for drug activity. Gjesdal disputed that; Bridgeport has its troubles but right now they are not out of the ordinary for towns Bridgeport's size, he said. He had some statistics-call for service (anytime a deputy gets called for any reason, major or trivial) in 2008 are down from the same period in 2007, he said. An increased emphasis on enforcement led to more citations in 2007, and Bridgeport had a lot going on in summer 2007; that was "kind of a rough summer for us," Gjesdal said. In 2008 citations and calls for service in Bridgeport have decreased every month when compared with 2007, he said.

The sheriff's office now has a school resource officer, who spends part of his time in Bridgeport schools among others, and Gjesdal said he thinks that's helped. Bridgeport School District and Bridgeport city officials have kicked in money to pay for an additional deputy who will be assigned to the northern part of the county.

Bridgeport still has its issues, of course--there's still graffiti around town and it's still close to Highway 97, which Gjesdal said is still a major route for drug traffic. Lolly Avenell asked about possible budget cuts; Douglas County reportedly will face a budget shortfall in 2009. She asked how that would affect the sheriff's office. Gjesdal said all departments have been asked to cut five percent from their 2009 budget proposals, but since the sheriff's office takes up a big chunk of the county budget "we're the big bite." Five percent would amount to approximately $159,000, he said; the goal is to cut without cutting services. One solution under consideration is leaving some positions unfilled.

Gjesdal was also asked about the Chelan County Regional Jail; adult prisoners from Douglas County are housed there, and the two counties have clashed recently over access and payment. Gjesdal said the commissioners have decided to pay for a designated number of spaces right now and work to extend the current contract, which would make the county a partner in operating the jail. He doesn't like paying for designated slots, he said, because if the county overflows their quota they end up paying extra for more spaces, and that shouldn't be part of the crime-prevention equation.