Letters: Don't let this happen to you

By Belinda Richey-Henkel and Dirk D. Henkel

Lopez Island

I have waited almost three months to write this letter, and have thought several times that writing this would probably be a waste of time on my part. However, I feel that I need to let the residents of San Juan County know the facts concerning the closure of our business, The Fogged Inn — that we worked so very hard to buy and build — so that perhaps it will save someone else the heartache and headaches that we have endured.

In October 1997, my husband Dirk and I bought the little burger stand at the Lopez ferry landing. At the time, it was just a little travel trailer with a storage shed at the end of it. The first day that we went in to start to clean, we were horrified and overwhelmed to find every surface covered in mouse droppings, rotting food in the refrigerator and filth everwhere. There was even an old six-hole ice cream freezer sitting outside filled with rotten ice cream, water and maggots.

Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us ... but we rolled up our sleeves and spent over a week completely scouring the entire thing. We painted and hauled mounds of garbage. Finally we were able to open.

We were open everday at 6 a.m. With the help of our two teen-age sons, we worked seven days a week, more than 12 hours per day. It took several months to overcome the bad reputation that the previous owners had made for the business.

In 1998, we began the long and tedious process of constructing a new building to replace the little travel trailer and storage shed. We had acquired an old single-wide mobile home and tore it down to the metal frame and then began building our "new restaurant" on it in the yard of our home. With the help of my father and numerous other friends and neighbors, we spent several months working on it, building as our cash allowed. Finally, in spring 1999, we moved it to its current spot at the ferry landing.

I won't even begin to try to get into all of the details of the hassles that we went through with the Permit Center leading up to this — telling us we needed a mobile home permit, then telling us that we did not need a permit at all as it was grandfathered in (the business had been there more than 25 years) then, on the day before we were to open, sending word with the fire marshal that we did need an after-the-fact building permit!

However, we did pass all of the mechanical and life-safety inspections and regulations required, along with a long list of requirements made by the San Juan County Health Department. After being closed for almost six weeks putting in the new building, we finally got the OK from the county to re-open in April 1999.

We were able to offer some indoor seating and a much-expanded menu. We became known for our breakfast sandwiches and burgers and built up a very loyal customer base. Each year (including this year) we paid for and received our Food Establishment Permit from the health department. And everything went fine until winter 2002.

To preface the following occurances, I must tell you that there is NO running water at the Lopez ferry landing — never has been and probably never will be. For those of you who may not be familiar with the area, our business was situated on a little triangle of property consisting of bedrock which we leased from Washington State Ferries. Every square inch of that triangle that was not taken up by the building was used for storage and outdoor seating. The business was backed by a very steep rock hillside.

In January 2002, I received a phone call from Mark Tompkins of the county Health Department informing me that our business was not in compliance with the County Code and that he wanted to meet with me to discuss it. The meeting took place in February. I was told that they wanted us to have a 1,000-gallon water tank to be filled by a licensed water hauler (of which there is none on Lopez Island; we would have to have someone come from off-island), and a graywater disposal tank (which needed to be 15 percent larger than the water tank), and an agreement with someone licensed to pump the disposal tank.

I asked them why, after three years, was our current system (that his office approved) all of a sudden not acceptable? He said that it was someone else who approved the existing system, that he was not working there when that was approved and that now he wanted it changed.

I tried to tell him that not only was there no room for two 1,000-gallon tanks on the little triangle that we leased, and that since Sept. 11, 2001 our business was on a steady decline and we were just barely keeping our heads above water as it was. Basically what I was told was that it was not their problem and that they would give us six months to have all of the things that they wanted in place or we would be shut down!

I once again argued that it did not seem right to me that his very office gave us the OK three years before to operate the way we were set up (to their specifications) and that now they arbitrarily decided that that was not good enough anymore. He reiterated that it was not his problem because he wasn't here then and that we had to come into compliance or face being shut down.

On Aug. 11, I received another phone call from Mr. Tompkins asking me what we had done to come into compliance. I told him that my husband was putting in a 45-gallon holding tank for graywater and that I had arranged for a septic pumping company to pump it when needed.

He wanted to know what we had done about the water, and I told him again, that not only did we not have the room to put in a 1,000-gallon water tank but that we did not have the money to do it either and furthermore that there is no licensed water hauler on Lopez and that to hire someone to bring water from off-island would be so cost-prohibitive as to put us out of business.

I said that my husband wanted to look into becoming a licensed water hauler, but there again we could not afford to buy a truck. He said that he wanted something in writing to state what we were doing and planned to do concerning this matter, so I e-mailed him a letter that afternoon. Ten days later, he personally showed up at our restaurant while my husband was working. (This was the first time that he had ever been on the premises). He told my husband to either shut down the business voluntarily or he would slap a notice on the door and shut it down for us! Of course, my husband closed.

The next day we recieved a call from California informing us of a family emergency and left the island that night to be there. A week later when we returned, I called John Manning, the head of the health department, to see if there were any way that we could open back up. He said that we would have to comply with what Mr. Tompkins wanted.

I asked him, "If we had the money and the room to do what they asked and put it all in, who was to say that they would not come back six months from now and tell us that THAT was not good enough either?" He said that he could not talk about the future, he could only talk about the present.

I told him that I felt that this was just not fair ... we had done everything that his office had asked for in order to re-open in 1999. Once again he stated that someone had made a mistake back then and that he could only talk about the present!

We took this to our attorney and had intended to take this matter to court ... unfortunately, without an income, we could not afford to pursue it! Catch 22!

Well, needless to say, our business that we worked our fingers to the bone to build, is still closed. We have lost everything that we worked so hard for. We have nothing to show for five years of blood, sweat and tears.

As a fourth-generation native of the island and a taxpayer, I am appalled at the state of our county government. It is a travesty that something like this can happen when our leaders say that one of their most important objectives is to support and promote small businesses and to keep the Islands affordable for the working class!

I purposely waited until after the local elections were over before bringing this matter to light, because I did not want anyone thinking that his was in any way political — it is not ... it is personal ... very personal. Our livelihood has been taken from us by a changing of the guard and inconsistent enforcement of regulations.

It is not only the income that we miss, it is the people (our customers), whom we have come to love and we feel that we have let them down! To them we say, we are sorry! To the government of our county and especially to the San Juan County Health Department, we say ... SHAME ON YOU! You have arbitrarily taken our life away from us.

Don't let this happen to anyone else!

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