HomeMy WebLinkAbout6-22-2020 Public Comment - L. Hibbs - SCUBA Sports coveFrom:zitnikcrew30
To:Agenda
Subject:Sports cove
Date:Tuesday, June 23, 2020 7:27:19 PM
Hello my name is Leah Hibbs, I am a Helena native and I am emailing on behalf of
Steve owner of Sports Cove in Bozeman.
A year ago my son and father were able to do classes with Instructor Jeff Silvan. My
mother,father, son and myself stayed a long weekend over in Bozeman. We rented a
hotel, we ate at local restaurants and did some shopping. We then were able to
spend more money at Steve's shop when we had to do certification classes. All and
all it was money well spent, but it was money spent in your community. It has recentlycome to my attention that Sports Cove has been struggling and alot of that due to not
being able to use the community pool to teach classes, which has affected several
people earning a paycheck as well as money NOT being spent in your community. I
understand that money coming from the outside more then likely is a.smallpercentage. But the travesty I see is not only are you hurting a local business owner,
instructors and dive enthusiasts, you are hurting your own outside revenue.
I am a travel agent for a part time living, when I book a trip for people in my sphere, I
send them to Sports Cove. When I talk to friends and family about Scuba Diving, Ihand out Mr. Silvans business card. When I post pictures on Facebook of my son
diving and people comment on how fun it looks I tell them to talk to Steve and Jeff.
Word of mouth in Helena is huge, I have learned as a small business owner myself
that 73% of business in Helena is spread by word of mouth and I would assumeBozeman is similar.
The presidance you are setting is that small business doesnt matter to big old
Bozeman, and so I ask you what is the driving force behind NOT opening that pool up
for their use? It surely cant be greed...so then why permit a wonderful, hard workingsmall business to be ruined?
Now outside of this which I'm sure because it isnt your community, might not be as
important is the amount of use that Sports Cove brings to Helena. They meet at
Cannyon Ferry to teach open water classes, which your local residents come to do,and subsequently help feed Helenas community. They stay in the campgrounds, the
local hotels, eat at the local restaurants, which is essential to the Helena community.
The local owner of the DAM BAR across from Kim's Marina where alot of the Sports
Cove people stay, she looks forward to having these guys frequent her establishment.So again, numerous people are affected by the ONE factor being unreasonable.
I implore you to reconsider the choices you are making and the factors that will affect
so many people and so many different communities.
Thank you for your time
Sincerely, a Sport Cove
Supporter
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone