SEATTLE
– Peninsula resident Tiffany Turner was one of three Washington small
business owners who met with President Barack Obama Tuesday morning for a
round table discussion at Grand Central Bakery in Pioneer Square,
Seattle.
In a brief interview shortly after the meeting, Turner
said excitedly, “It was crazy!” Turner and her husband Brady own the
Inn at Discovery Coast in Long Beach.
The group, which also
included U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Commerce Secretary and former
Washington Gov. Gary Locke, Gillian Allen-White, co-owner of Grand
Central Bakery, and Joe Fugere, owner of Seattle’s Tutta Bella
Neapolitan Pizzeria, discussed the owners’ stories as small-business
entrepreneurs and their experiences with obtaining small-business loans.
According to KIRO-7 News, the three business owners all had a hard time
getting loans from big banks and eventually found success with small
community banks. The group reportedly discussed incentives that might
spur additional small-business lending by community banks. Locke said
Turner and the other two business owners were selected to meet the
president because they’ve managed to succeed despite current economic
challenges.
Turner, who had met with Sen. Murray for a similar
discussion in April, said she was contacted Saturday by Main Street
Alliance, a national network of small-business owners that work on
public policy issues, to see if she could attend the event.
Outside of the bakery after the meeting, Obama talked to the public
about the economic situation and the importance of small businesses to
job growth.
“These are tough times for a lot of small-business
owners” said President Obama. “Across the country, many small businesses
that were once the beating heart of the community are now empty
storefronts haunting our main streets.”
Turner is an Ilwaco
High School graduate and earned a degree in family consumer sciences
from Seattle Pacific University in 2001. A former local school teacher,
she participates in a number of community activities, for example
serving on the board of directors of the Peninsula Boys and Girls Club.
The Turners’ inn currently has four full-time employees and during the
peak season there are up to seven additional part-time employees. In
2009 they approached their bank about a loan in order to expand but were
turned down. However, just recently, Tiffany and Brady were approved
for a loan that will enable them to expand operations and hire up to 20
additional full-time and part-time employees over the coming year.
“Tiffany and her husband have been ready to expand and hire more
employees, and can finally do so thanks to an economic climate where
community banks are lending to small businesses again,” according to
Murray’s office.
– Chinook Observer
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