Letter: Local business needs support

Until recently, I owned the car wash located at 101 Arlington St. in Bayou Vista. The car wash remains locally owned by a young family raised right here in our community. It is my hope that our local residents will continue to support our locally owned businesses.
During my time as owner of the car wash, we were forced to close at times by the local drainage district for various reasons, including low levels of water in the water tower. Also, anyone who lives in that vicinity knows of the horrendous flooding problems.
To make matters worse, another car wash is slated to open at the corner of U.S. Highway 90 and Southeast Boulevard. The projection by the company opening the car wash is that they will use a massive amount of water compared to the existing car wash, contributing to an even greater stress on our ecosystem.
The car wash will almost assuredly be built by out-of-town contractors with supplies and equipment being purchased out of town. The revenues will go out of town. Car washes do not pay sales taxes. Besides the fact that we could have congestion on Highway 90 and on Southeast Boulevard, my question is what is the economic benefit to our community? As far as I see it will be a handful of minimum wage jobs and a few thousand dollars in property taxes annually. Does that really outweigh the negatives?
Jody Felterman
Retired