I resent the Reporter’s statement in the May 26 issue that Ostroms Drug & Gift has “cut and run” from Kenmore Village, implying we are the villains who created the hole in the middle of Kenmore. To the contrary, I have publicly stated since 2002 that the “Northwest Quadrant” zoning changes, and the type of development subsequently planned by the city of Kenmore, would make it impossible for Ostroms Drug & Gift to survive in a “new” Kenmore “Village by the Lake.”

In October 2002, I co-wrote a guest editorial in the Reporter, which stated that Ostroms could not survive in the “Northwest Quadrant” should the proposed restrictions — which subsequently came to pass — on parking and drive-through windows be adopted. I also wrote, “Shockingly, the city’s fervor for its vision of downtown Kenmore has led it to ignore even its own financial analysis, which repeatedly states that retail development is not feasible, summarizing, ‘…most retail uses do not generate developer profit if parking must be provided in a structure.’” (Please note the current City Council and city administration were not serving at that time).

In early November 2003, I wrote in a letter to the Reporter editor, “No business has more to gain from the revitalization of downtown Kenmore than Ostroms Drug… We are more than willing to pay more rent in order to improve our facility…(However,) if the city develops the property in the style called for in the Downtown Plan — multi-story buildings with retail on the ground floor — Ostroms won’t be able to compete with Rite Aid and Safeway and their convenient, ample parking…Ostroms wants to be a part of a rejuvenated shopping district in downtown Kenmore. But we need to be able to compete with Rite Aid and Safeway on a level playing ground.”

On Nov. 20, 2003, I met with ClearPath, a firm consulting the city. ClearPath called the meeting to encourage Ostroms to negotiate an early termination of our lease to April 2009, with no options beyond that date, so that the city could commence construction of the new Kenmore Village in April 2009. My notes from the meeting also say “the city would like (Ostroms) to be a part of the new development if it fits into (the city’s) plan”; and “the city probably can’t help (Ostroms) find a new space.”

Given my responsibility to 24 team members and to our thousands of customers, I began looking for a new location for Ostroms Drug & Gift in late 2003 and made contact with the owner of our current location in early 2006.

The statement that Ostroms Drug & Gift has “cut and run” from a declining Kenmore Village is very misleading. The city’s zoning and development policies, from which I dissented early on, gave Ostroms little choice but to seek a different location.

Todd Ramsey

President

Ostroms Drug & Gift