Bothell’s Country Village Closing April 1st

It’s closing. April 1, 2019 the Country Village will be closing. My first office was at Country Village. I have made life long friends with those I met in the village. My boy was raised in the village. I can remember him running from store to store, talking with the owners. When you shop at the Country Village, you most likely spoke to the owner directly (try doing that at Walmart). My son would typically talk his way into some candy the shop owners would have behind the bar. He could walk through that place and I knew that everyone was looking out for him.

I had a chance to work with the Country Village management for a number of years assisting with events and marketing efforts. One thing that I can tell you is they loved that village. They loved what it meant, they loved the way that village made all of us feel. I want to go on record saying that it truly hurts them to close the village down. You can read about the history of the Country Village all over the place and I will not go into it here, but it has been built from the ground up with old fashion grit and determination. 

There were so many characters in the Country Village. Ray the maintenance guy would drive his broken down tractor all over the place, pulling up stumps, digging holes and causing trouble. The train guy who would lose his shit when someone would park a little bit over the line or disturb his train routes. 

I also put on the Bothell Blues Festival for three years at the Country Village. Really successful, that was until the land in the back sold. I will forever miss those days. 

All in all, everyone I think will miss the Country Village. However, it’s really OUR (the Bothell Community) fault it is closing. If we were more active, spent more dollars and made that place a viable place for business and events, the Loveless family could have found an owner that could take over a profitable business. Truth is, we took it for granted. 

Looking to the future, the Bothell community should look around and see some of the simple pleasures we enjoy in Bothell, cherish them and focus on not losing them. This is a wake-up call Bothell.

I am going to continue writing a bit later, I need to go to work.

Here are some details about the village closing:

1. Country Village management has let a few businesses have through the end of April to get moved out
2. Property has been sold to a developer who plans to put condos on the land.
3. Where do we go now?