4.4. SR 08-18-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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RON JONES RACING FAX NO. : ?622419848 Aug. 18 200~ 04:36PM P1 PERFORMANCE DRIVING SCHOOl., 59: DODGE AVE. EL ~.RIVER, MN 55330 6 I] :4569-2641 ~-t 18, 2003 M~Or & City Council members i i! Due to a previous engagement I am unable to attend the council meeting tonight Aug tSth 2003. [ am :voicing'my concerns mgm'ding the partnership between Elk R. iver and Life Skills Driving School. As a ibusirless owner I am concerned about thc effect this has on my business that I have worked so hard To ?mbli~1~ in the community. I opened Performance Diving School in Sc-pt of 1999; I worked 12-hour days )for 2{years getting my business offthe ground. Both my family and myself sacrificed many things so 1 coulld.!a sUCcessful business. About 1 I/2 years ago I was doing well enough to be able to hire another pea ~o be:lp out so that I didn't have to do it all alone. I feel the better a business is doing the more em~?yre! they can hire in the community, ; :: ~ Up unul last fall my business was doing well. Over thc fall and wrater of 2002/2003 1 saw sales falling from the previous 2 years and thought {t was duc to the economy. I was contacted by Marcli Lac er a cou~.'le of'months ago and was informed of the relationship between Elk River and Life Skills Driving Sch~l, th~ was when I realized that my sales were not falling duc to the economy at all. It was bemuse Lif{: .$. killd is able to offer Classroom and Behind the Wheel at a much lower cost than the rest of the driving sch~mls inltown. :~[ P~rformance Driving School employee's 2 people (including myself) and spends thousands of dol~ in ,Elk River every year. Elk River and the taxpayers already land I driving school (Comm. Ed) Wth~y ~do w~. ' need to fund another one? My tax dollars are spenI to fund 2 business's that can put me our of busir~ss ~th~. If I am forced to close my door~, 2 l~ople will be out of jobs, and the city will be losing thocsmtds ~fdollars, not to m~ntion, the impact this will hav~ on all of students that are already em'oiled. ! ii Iioth myself and Go Driving School had to pick up the pieces when Twin City Driving'School clo~ andwe are still helping students from that mess to get their driver's lice-uses. Performance Driving Schb~l oft~d many lessons to kids whom had 1 or 2 lessons lef~ fi-*e of charge, when we could have token adv~cage 10t'that situation. (we did nor). ! !! : Marcli L informed me, that at the last mecxing Micheil¢ B. from the recreation center Said that there was a~ine~d for driving and that she was receiving phone calls of the manner. She implied that other driving sch&:~s weke so busy that they were mining people away. If this is true, why did one school close already? Wh~ ~lid .qbe not contact myself asking if we were turning people away? She did none of th~sc things, nor did: ii~ ofl~ Performance or Go the opportunity to work with thc recreation center. Don't get me wrong I wel~-~ne c~mpetition as long as I know that we are on a level playing ground. I welcome Life Skills as long a.q ff~c? haye to pay the going mu~ for Rent, Advertising, Insurance, Car Paymeots, Employx:es, and ECT. i:i . .... ~ - · I ?. l:~ithe recreation center ts only interested m doing what s right for the ¢ommmuty, .why.not. re,roChe.to file people who are calling about driving that there a several driving schools m EIk River to cho~ f~'o~n and give them the names and phone numbers. Why are H~ey only helping one? ~, ;}: 9~har the Council needs to ask them.qelves is: Is this fair to the existing busin~ss's that have suppoi~: .~e other local businesses in town for a number of years? Or shall we giw thc opportunity to busit~ess from out of town that has done nothing to suppo~ our community? (Life Skills is iocamd out of