Any unique facts about Colville, WA??? (Seattle, Wenatchee: transplants, crime, houses)

[PS90]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reading this and for any replies I may receive.

As a very quick background - I am a native of Eastern WA, and have lived in Pullman, Wenatchee, the Methow Valley, and Omak. I even lived in Centralia for a while, but will never go back to Western WA...

Anyway, my family and I are contemplating a move to Colville. I have only been there once for two days, and don't know much about it.

I guess I am looking for any "unique" facts/information/concerns about Colville as compared to the rest of Eastern WA. On other words, comments like "it's going to be really dry there compared to Seattle" or "it snows there!" aren't going to help me very much.

Are there any specific concerns anyone knows about concerning crime or religious "cults" or anything that would be a concern for my family? Or is there a general attitude of the population that differs from the rest of WA? Anything??? For example, I have heard stories about people being afraid of hiking anywhere near the Onion Creek area, because they are afraid that Pot growers will retaliate if they hike too close to the growers' land - not sure how realistic this is, however.

Thanks so very much for any help!

[PS90]

One other question I am interested in - I am always afraid of the timber-town mentality. It seems like the mill is the lifeline of these communities - if it goes belly-up, then so does the town. Does anyone "in the know" think that this may be a possibility in Colville?

Thanks again.

[Count David]

Many (if you get any) of the replies will be like mine:

"There's a Wal-Mart there, and the town seemed cute".

[PS90]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Many (if you get any) of the replies will be like mine:

"There's a Wal-Mart there, and the town seemed cute".

Thanks, David.

I was hoping for a little more than that, but I guess it was a long-shot...

[509]

We lived there for just over 4 years in the 1980's. We also lived in Omak and Wenatchee.

No comparison between towns. Colville is.....well, different. Remember this is a county where the freaks and rednecks got together and eliminated the Uniform Building Code requirement for building houses.

Libraries were awful. The other side of the Columbia River is in the North Central Regional Library system and we tried finding a house there just for the library system.

People were not into community. Some neighborhood pockets and by neighborhood I mean rural areas outside of town were friendly. Others were just into themselves with little contact with neighbors.

After 30 years my wife still refuses to go back even for a visit.

On the plus side, great outdoors stuff. If your into hunting and fishing it will be paradise.

Your mileage may vary. What is important for us is good schools, a positive sense of community, good library system is critical, and sense of people working together for the community. Colville did not have that in the 1980's. Is is one of the few areas in the state where rural living is cheap and widely available.

The lumber mill is probably ok, unless the Federal Government bans forest management on Federal land. The mill in Colville might even be ok in that case, given their access to private timber. Trees do have the potential to grow fast in that country.

If you liked Wenatchee and Omak for the communities you will probably have a hard time in Colville. But it might have changed.

A lot depends on what your lifestyle is like. For a couple of professionals it was very difficult for my wife, but I did get a lot of fishing and hunting outings!!

[PS90]

509,

Thanks so much for the reply. It sounds like we may be very similar in lifestyle/past experiences - I have also lived in Omak, and now live in Wenatchee, and I am also a professional.

I grew up in the Methow Valley, and eventually moved back to Omak - where I felt the exact same way that you describe Colville. Omak was completely different than I remember it when I grew up in the next valley over - nobody in Omak was friendly, no one seemed to want to talk to anyone else, and it had by far the least "accepting" clients for my business. Most clients in other areas may take a little time to warm up to a new doctor, but the people in Omak (the majority, it seemed like at least) never warmed up to me and were much more "stand-offish" than any other clients I've ever had.

Wenatchee, on the other hand, is a completely different world. I actually love this area, and the people are excellent. I just can't continue forever in the dead-end job I have now. And, with a non-compete clause in my contract, I have no choice but to go else-where.

I'm hoping Colville has changed somewhat since your experience. Thanks again for the candid advice.

[riverfront4u]

There's 25% on disability, 25% retired, 25% employed by the Federal, State, or Local Gov't-the place swarms with Federal and State law enforcement.The remaining 25% actually work-Walmart, Hearth and Homes(wood stoves), and for the medical group that's job is to fleece the people out of their entitlements and rip off the government.
Many businesses are folding up.Many of the rest do their best to rip you off.Young people are leaving.Schools have a lot less students.Only deterioration in the last 8 years-more trash-more front-yard junk yards-zero pride.
Never seen so many fat, bald-headed, toothless women-this is a homely gene-starved bunch that find it acceptable to drag their big, fat, 40-year-old-plus asses into businesses with dirty-ass pajamas and filthy slippers on any given afternoon.

I've been waiting 5years to sell my house and leave and finally, finally, I have sold it at a 30% loss.
Homes do not appreciate here, the community drags down the price of any home, no matter how nice.

Straight UP

Good luck to you.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by riverfront4u

There's 25% on disability, 25% retired, 25% employed by the Federal, State, or Local Gov't-the place swarms with Federal and State law enforcement.The remaining 25% actually work-Walmart, Hearth and Homes(wood stoves), and for the medical group that's job is to fleece the people out of their entitlements and rip off the government.
Many businesses are folding up.Many of the rest do their best to rip you off.Young people are leaving.Schools have a lot less students.Only deterioration in the last 8 years-more trash-more front-yard junk yards-zero pride.
Never seen so many fat, bald-headed, toothless women-this is a homely gene-starved bunch that find it acceptable to drag their big, fat, 40-year-old-plus asses into businesses with dirty-ass pajamas and filthy slippers on any given afternoon.

I've been waiting 5years to sell my house and leave and finally, finally, I have sold it at a 30% loss.
Homes do not appreciate here, the community drags down the price of any home, no matter how nice.

Straight UP

Good luck to you.

Hey! Thanks for reviving my old thread!

I appreciate your honest opinion and point-of-view, but, for the record, we have now lived in Colville for about 9 months, and everything that I have seen is completely (or at least mostly) opposite of your doom-and-gloom perspective.

Obviously, we are complete "noobs" to the area, so my opinions are probably somewhat naive, but I do work in the medical field (not at the hospital) so I regularly see a fairly broad-sampling of the "average" person who lives in Colville.

First, there certainly are a lot of people on disability and a lot of retirees. But no more-so or less-so than any other similarly-sized town. I've gone on this particular rant before, but it seems appropriate here - I will never understand people who rail against certain things in a particular town, that exist in every small town - like the "hillbilly people with no teeth", the lack of restaurants, the mom-and-pop businesses that charge too much, etc. EVERY small town, with a few exceptions (i.e. Leavenworth), in this state have these attributes to some extent - and only the urban-transplants seem to notice these "problems". You can't expect to move to Ritzville (just an example) and expect it to be Seattle, just with less people.

And I'm not sure I understand your aversion to "the place swarm[ing] with Federal and State law enforcement". Yes, we see a LOT of Border Patrol Employees - almost every one has been a great person. It seems to me that having a problem with a lot of LEO's around means that you're doing something that results in not wanting them around...

As for home prices falling and businesses folding up - have you been to ANY other small town in Washington State? This is happening everywhere. This is a by-product of the economy, followed by the filter-down effect to small-town businesses. I lived in Okanogan in 2008, and Colville is nowhere near as bad off as Okanogan was/is in this respect.

Colville certainly hasn't been perfect since we've moved here, but nowhere is, and so far, we have been very happy here. Everyone has their experiences and ideas that mold their own personal opinion, I guess.

I apologize for the editorializing. Good luck to you with your move.

[proweld]

ok I had to sleep on this one before I posted.
First been trying to make the move for past 7 years and finally bought this year.
On the former post:
We live in a small mountain community now. small school classes. good teachers,maybe thats why my daughter is going to a university with honors now.
Nothing for kids to do? yep no malls no gangs,no drugs,no shootings....everyone owns a gun and all know it.
Parents should get involved with their kids. Not rush them to school,then come home from the bar and wonder why they act like they do.
rednecks? If that means wanting to not be bothered by drama from your neighbors and stay to yourself. so what,that's a life style that a lot of people enjoy. deal with it.
people bragging about family history in the area , well why not? wish I could of done that.
good guy attitude? really?who cares?
maybe you should stay in the big city and gripe about the goverment, gangs prositution, polititions,ect
stay away from where I choose to live my retirement. guess all us good ol boys will do some fishing,drink our beer and kill something so you can have some negitive things to say.
Of course this is my opinon and nobody elses
have a nice day.......I have to load the boat up

[PS90]

Originally Posted by proweld

ok I had to sleep on this one before I posted.
First been trying to make the move for past 7 years and finally bought this year.
On the former post:
We live in a small mountain community now. small school classes. good teachers,maybe thats why my daughter is going to a university with honors now.
Nothing for kids to do? yep no malls no gangs,no drugs,no shootings....everyone owns a gun and all know it.
Parents should get involved with their kids. Not rush them to school,then come home from the bar and wonder why they act like they do.
rednecks? If that means wanting to not be bothered by drama from your neighbors and stay to yourself. so what,that's a life style that a lot of people enjoy. deal with it.
people bragging about family history in the area , well why not? wish I could of done that.
good guy attitude? really?who cares?
maybe you should stay in the big city and gripe about the goverment, gangs prositution, polititions,ect
stay away from where I choose to live my retirement. guess all us good ol boys will do some fishing,drink our beer and kill something so you can have some negitive things to say.
Of course this is my opinon and nobody elses
have a nice day.......I have to load the boat up

Hey Proweld. Thanks for bumping this old thread up again!

I am assuming you are referring to "riverfront4u"'s post. If so, I can't agree with you more.

The posts in this forum that annoy me more than ANY other, as I have already alluded to in this thread and a bunch of others, is from the poster (who is usually a Seattle or SoCal transplant) who retires to a small Washington town, decides it's not for them, and promptly bashes the town on these forums.

By some of these posts, I honestly think that some people move to a small town with the idea that the town is going to be a small Seattle. They want "country" or "forests", and open space and less people, but they also still want ultra-liberal neighbors, five-star restaurants around the corner, world-class piano lessons (or ballet lessons, or competitive lacrosse teams, etc) for their kids, and a rip-roaring housing market (no matter how available jobs actually are).

There certainly are things that need to be given up, if you are an urbanite moving to a small town. But, as Proweld mentioned, you're also giving up gang activity, smog, urban sprawl, traffic, etc.

Works for me.

Okay, off the soap-box...