LYNNWOOD – Arnold’s Hay and Grain, a popular old-fashioned feed store that struggled to stay open, has lost the fight.
It will close for good at the end of the day Sunday.
Kevin Nortz / The Herald
“We’re sad,” employee Cindy Phelps said. “We have customers that absolutely break into tears.”
Owners Dick and Corinne Balser were unable to satisfy Snohomish County requirements for a building permit at their planned new location, Corinne Balser said.
The Balsers’ store, located in an old house and barn at 15827 35th Ave. W., has violated zoning laws at the location since it moved there five years ago in what was planned at the time as a temporary measure.
After numerous delays, disagreements and misunderstandings between the Balsers and county officials, the Balsers agreed in January to a deadline of June 15 to be off the property.
Kevin Nortz / The Herald
If they don’t meet the deadline, the Balsers could be required to pay five years of accumulated fines totaling $363,000 rather than the $5,000 agreed upon by them and the county.
They believed their plan for the other property, at 17410 Ash Way, would allow them to build in time for the deadline, but the regulations proved to be too much, Corinne Balser said.
“They put so many requirements on it, and turned it into a million-and-a-half dollar project,” she said. Both in their 70s, the Balsers can’t afford to build at that price, Balser said.
“Basically, they’re outpricing us,” she said.
The Ash Way property contains wetlands, which has created problems in designing buildings for the property. The Balsers finally developed a plan to meet the requirements but were told they could not build in phases as they had hoped, Corinne Balser said.
County officials have said they gave the Balsers many chances and extensions. Officials could not be reached for comment Monday.
The popular store, which sells straw and feed for farm animals, pet supplies and runs a pet-rescue operation, draws regular customers from around the region. More than 1,000 of them signed petitions last year to ask the county to help the store stay open.
Many of the customers say Arnold’s has a personal touch missing from larger stores.
“These women are special, very special,” Anne Sgro of Granite Falls said of Corinne Balser and the other full-time Arnold’s employees. The employees have yet to find new jobs.
Sgro and her husband, Frank, have been buying bird seed at Arnold’s for 15 years.
“It has a lot to do with the camaraderie and the animals,” Sgro said of their loyalty to the store. The Sgros are adopting a cat. Homes had been found for all but a couple of the cats and rabbits at the store as of Sunday.
Like at least one other customer, the Sgros offered to come in and help the Balsers take down the operation.
The store has always been customer-service oriented, said Jay McGough of Martha Lake, who has been buying chicken feed there for almost 20 years.
“If you need something they’re there to help,” he said.
Original owners Floyd and Beverly Arnold started the business as a hay delivery service out of their farmhouse on 164th Street SW, not far from the current site.
A young couple who ran the business in the early ’90s started the pet-rescue operation, and the Balsers continued that practice when they took over the store in 1995.
“We wanted to retire with Arnold’s in good hands and it didn’t happen that way,” Corinne Balser said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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