Community gives new residents big welcome

To The Eagle:

Recently, my husband Dick Watts and I spent a week and a half in Cathlamet, finalizing the purchase of our new home. During that period of time, we met dozens of people. Warm, friendly, easy to talk to, and eager to make our acquaintance. In fact, Dick and I marvel to ourselves that we have already made more friends in Cathlamet than we made during 28 years in our current neighborhood in Southern California!

Now we'd like to take a moment to publicly thank all of you for welcoming us into your community. All of you, but especially our real estate agent Bill Coons. Bill is an amazing asset to Cathlamet and all of Wahkiakum County.

Ours was a difficult escrow, complicated by Dick's health issues and by the financial problems of the developer who built our new home. Bill was extremely patient and he was always polite, enthusiastic and positive, even when answering Dick's third or fourth telephone call in one single day! And he was willing to spend time to calm our concerns and explain our alternatives. Indeed, Bill was the one who suggested most of the alternatives which ultimately solved our problems.

Bill Coons is always fair and resourceful and he follows through on promises. Even now, a week after our escrow closed, Bill is still responding to our concerns. Only now he's doing so as our friend, not as our real estate agent.

While Bill is our first friend in Cathlamet, we have budding friendships with others as well. Our new neighbors David and Amy Kuo explained the trash collection and mail delivery systems and they invited us to dinner and offered to watch over our house while we return to California to pack our belongings. Cheryl and David Nelson gave us information about the history of the area and encouraged Dick's ideas for improving his surroundings. Chuck Beyer satisfied our concerns about the construction of the house. Hollie Longtain, owner of the Design Center, helped us identify the paint colors in our home. Larry Havens made some of the repairs necessary so that we can live in the house and Dennis Rhodes helped us obtain insurance for our new home.

And we've had wonderful conversations with people and employees in PJ's, Sharon's, the Cathlamet Market, Bank of the Pacific, Wahkiakum Title & Escrow and Wally's Hardware Store. And so many others that I can't possibly name them all.

Dick and I look forward to resuming friendships with all of these people and with the others whom we haven't met. We hope to become full-time residents of Cathlamet within the next month.

Hannah Booth

Cathlamet