Cashmere Now Hometown Of Aplets, Cotlets -- Some Residents Do Not Approve Of City's Promotion Of Company

CASHMERE, Chelan County - Aplets and Cotlets, the famous sweets from Apple Country, have become a little harder for their hometown neighbors to swallow.

But swallow they did this week, along with the Cashmere City Council. With the candy maker threatening to leave town, the council agreed to formally become the "Home of Aplets and Cotlets," and to change the name of one of its major streets to "Aplets Way."

Still pending are proposals to rename two other major streets "Cotlets Avenue" and "Liberty Orchards Way," for the company that has been making the chewy candy here for 77 years.

The city also is prepared to make room for the Liberty Orchards business to expand - even if it means moving City Hall itself, if that's what it would take to keep the company from moving up Highway 2 to Leavenworth.

At a public hearing this week, Mayor John Hunter said the city needed to accommodate a company that generates jobs and local taxes.

"We hear comments about a Mariners or Seahawks scenario of being held hostage, and that's simply not true," Hunter told more than 150 Cashmere residents. "It's reality. We are the home of Aplets and Cotlets."

Residents said they have no problem with that. But many of them don't want the city formally marketing a private company.

Enough residents showed up Monday evening for the meeting to be moved to the fire hall, next door to City Hall. Sitting in folding chairs on the oil-splotched concrete floor, with freight trains rumbling past outside every 20 minutes, citizens vented.

"I'd love to have the city put up 30 signs on the highway for my tavern," one businessman said.

"It's totally a matter of principle," said Alan Moen, who publishes a local newsletter. "No private business should be allowed to promote itself at taxpayers' expense."

"We're talking about the streets which have most of Cashmere's small business," said Susan Kidd. "Each one of those businesses will have to print new stationery, new cards, anything with their address."

"I love this town," said Greg Taylor, Liberty Orchards president. "I don't want to leave."

The company has conducted a public-relations campaign with newspaper ads, mailings and an earlier public meeting at the local Baptist church. Taylor has promised to pay $50 toward the costs of any business that has to change its address.

Like many small towns, Cashmere has been steadily losing customers to malls in Wenatchee, 10 miles to the east, and tourist-oriented shops in Leavenworth, 10 miles west.

Last year, some 1 million people were lured to Bavarian-themed Leavenworth, while only about 60,000 found their way off the highway to Cashmere - mostly to tour the Liberty Orchards plant.

"There's a lot of talk about a hammer being held over our heads," the mayor told the meeting. "Well that hammer is hitting a wake-up bell. Our retail tax base has been sliding. The long-term impact is we're going to get smaller and smaller."

While Liberty sells most of its candy by mail order or wholesale, its factory tours and retail store are important to marketing, Taylor said. The company needs space to expand its retail store and parking lot. And it wants to draw more travelers into Cashmere, just a few hundred yards off Highway 2 but screened by trees.

Taylor said the company wants more signs along the highway, but has run head-on into a strict state law against highway signs. By changing street names and adopting "Home of Aplets and Cotlets" as a formal slogan, the city can advertise on highway signs at both entrances to the town: "Next exit: Aplets Way, Cotlets Avenue."

"The things we've submitted to the city are all very important," Taylor said. "But the most important is to upgrade highway signage. We're at a horrible disadvantage to Leavenworth, which has the highway running right through town. Cashmere is almost invisible."

For Liberty, the alternative is to move to a vacant warehouse next to the highway in Leavenworth.

After a short discussion, the council voted to change the name of Division Street to Aplets Way. Decisions on renaming what are now Cottage Avenue and Mission Avenue were postponed until October.

Ross Anderson's phone message number is 206-464-2061. His e-mail address is: rand-new@seatimes.com