Biz Bits: Clothing store Iconique opens in Lewiston
An owner of five Idaho tanning salons is diversifying her ventures with the debut of a downtown Lewiston clothing store.
Iconique is at 618 Main St. It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
The business carries “trendy, affordable” jeans, shirts, dresses, sweaters, jewelry, hats, shoes and purses, generally in sizes small through extra large, said its owner Michelle Roby.
The debut of the brick-and-mortar store comes two years after she started selling clothing at two Electric Rays Tanning locations, one at the Lewiston Center Mall and the other in Hayden, Idaho, two years ago.
In August, she expanded more with online sales, just prior to opening in downtown right before Thanksgiving.
Besides in-person shopping at her new store, Roby’s online customers can also have their orders mailed to them or pick them up at the store, whichever is more convenient.
Some of the online orders are from as far away as New York state.
“I don’t even know how they found my store online,” said Roby, whose other tanning locations are in Moscow, Coeur d’Alene and Meridian.
Given what she has seen elsewhere, Roby said she expects that a larger variety of businesses will join Iconique in downtown Lewiston soon.
“You go other places and the downtown is just so booming,” she said. “We don’t have that here yet, but I feel like it’s coming.”
Lewiston airport adding amenities for overnight cruise boat passengers
A waiting room will be a priority project of a recently formed cruise boat hospitality committee at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport.
The “Explorer Room” will be a “quiet area” where “guests can relax in comfort” while learning more about the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, said Gary Peters, chairman of the airport’s authority board, in an email. The room will be located in space that formerly housed Map Travel, a travel agency.
A complimentary shuttle will be provided so the passengers can visit downtown Lewiston or other attractions, Peters said.
“These passengers expect a very high level of service to go along with the five-star experience while they are on the ship, so we want to bring that service to them from the moment they step off of a flight or the moment they arrive at the airport to board a flight,” Peters said.
The committee will spend coming weeks refining the concepts so the upgrades can be finished by March 1, when the cruises from Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley resume after their normal winter hiatus, he said.
It’s too early in the process to have a cost estimate for the improvements, Peters said.
“We would expect most of the work will be done by volunteers, with help from airport staff when needed,” he said. “We will have a better idea once the committee has been able to meet and come up with some ideas.”
The cruise boat passengers provide the airport an important opportunity, Peters said.
“The (Lewiston) airport could see as many as 20,000 additional travelers this year alone due to the cruise passengers utilizing the additional United Airlines … service to Denver as well as our Delta Airline service to Salt Lake City,” Peters said.
The hospitality committee is led by Laurie Wilson, an airport authority board member who is director of sales and catering at the Hells Canyon Grand Hotel in Lewiston.
Other committee members are Michelle Peters, president and CEO of Visit Lewis Clark Valley; Jennifer Holley, business representative, Inland Cellular; Kathy Schroeder, a Lewiston City Council member; Becky Cawley, a Realtor at Coldwell Banker Tomlinson in Lewiston; DeAnn Scrabeck and Doug Black, members of Friends of the Airport; and Diane Dennis, office manager and finances at the Lewiston airport.
Chamber backs effort to eliminate mandatory Washington state tax for long-term care
The Lewis Clark Valley Chamber of Commerce is urging community members to gather signatures for a Washington state initiative that, if passed by voters, would allow its residents to opt in or out of a new long-term care tax at any time.
Initiative 1436 needs 400,000 signatures by Dec. 31 to qualify for the ballot, according to an emailed update from the chamber last week that had a link to a place to obtain petitions.
“Put the choice of healthcare back in your hands,” to the update states.
If the initiative passes, it would eliminate a mandatory payroll tax of .58 percent on the wages of all Washington employees that starts Jan. 1, and instead give Washington residents the option of joining the state plan or providing a private alternative, according to the update.
The tax has been criticized by many, including Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, the area’s largest private employer.
One of the concerns is the payroll tax is assessed on everyone working in Washington even if they live in other states and wouldn’t be eligible to receive the benefits unless they moved to Washington.
Plus, the maximum lifetime benefit of the state plan is $39,500 per person for services such as nursing home stays, in-home personal care and assisted living. That amount, critics of the tax say, won’t go very far, given the average annual cost of a shared nursing home room is in the neighborhood of $115,000 in Washington.
SEWEDA has new executive director
Dovie Willey stepped into a new job as the executive director of the Southeast Washington Economic Development Association on Wednesday.
She is replacing Dawn Smith, who is retiring from the position, said Asotin County Commission Chairman Brian Shinn, who is also president of SEWEDA’s board.
Willey most recently served as SEWEDA’s director of grants.
Smith will be on SEWEDA’s payroll through the end of December, assisting Willey with the transition in leadership, but has a number of vacation days, Shinn said.
Starting in January, Smith will be available as needed to the association as a paid consultant, he said.
Like Smith, Willey also will be the area development officer for Asotin County, based in its Clarkston office.
The not-for-profit group works on projects primarily in Asotin, Whitman and Garfield counties. Its largest source of revenue is state tax dollars earmarked for organizations of its kind in every county in Washington.
Washington grain commission board retains three area farmers
Three southeastern Washington farmers have been reappointed to the board of their state’s grain commission.
Brit Ausman, a fifth-generation farmer who raises spring wheat and spring barley near Asotin, will continue to represent District 3 for wheat. Ausman has served on the board since 2012. District 3 is comprised of Columbia, Walla Walla, Garfield and Asotin counties.
Gary Bailey, a St. John wheat grower, is representing Whitman County, the state’s largest wheat-growing county. Bailey was appointed to the commission in 2016 and served as chairman from 2019-20.
Ben Barstow, a Palouse barley grower and the commission’s vice chairman, is representing the state’s southern barley district. That district includes Whitman, Asotin, Garfield, Columbia, Walla Walla, Benton, Franklin, Klickitat and Yakima counties.
Ausman, Bailey and Barstow are among 10 members of the board. The commission was created in 1958 by the Washington State Department of Agriculture with the support of eastern Washington farmers. The commission works to enhance the long-term profitability and competitiveness of Washington small grains and small-grain farmers with research, marketing and education.
Economic development group assesses fallout of pandemic on area ventures
MOSCOW — The Partnership for Economic Prosperity is seeking information on the impact of COVID-19 on regional business in a survey at pepedo.org.
“The pandemic has hit businesses disproportionately hard, and we want to use real-time solid data to help decision makers when apportioning their American Rescue Plan Act allotments and in forming long-term strategies for business attraction, retention and growth,” said Gina Taruscio, executive director of the partnership, in a news release.
The Partnership for Economic Prosperity is Latah County’s economic development partnership between the city of Moscow, Latah County, the University of Idaho, Avista, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and business partners.
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