The BMW S1000RR will be at the International Motorcycle Show!

We have an environmental situation on our building that houses Ride West BMW that is both interesting and perplexing. A little history Ann & Keith Thye

will be helpful in explaining how we got here as well as what the problem is.

Beginning is mid-1995 Ride West was located in a funky little 4000 square foot building in the Green Lake area. Our lease on that property was year to year, as the landlord desired to build six floors of retail and condo's on the site (the nice complex now across the street from Gregg's Greenlake Cycle). We preferred to purchase a building or build on vacant land, and for a year and a half we looked at one or more sites every week, finally choosing our current location. The location was wonderful, on a busy arterial and close to the old location and the price was right. So we purchased it in the year 2000. After our down payment the mortgage was below a threshold that required a number of expensive surveys and so we elected to forgo some of these, including a Phase 1 Environmental Impact Survey.

In 2003 we purchased Tacoma BMW and moved it to its new location in Fife. In order to purchase the building we re-financed our Seattle property in order to come up with the sizeable down payment required. When we did this it pushed our mortgage limit over the threshold requiring the environmental survey. Low and behold, we discovered that the prior owners of the Lake City Way property had a dry cleaners operation and at some point had spilled Perchloreythelene (PERC) on the grounds. The Washington Department of Ecology dictates that anything exceeding zero parts per billion (yes, with a "b") must be cleaned up. We discovered this in 2003, and now after a lengthy lawsuit and permitting applications we are finally ready to start the clean up process.

Over the winter months we are going to have an interesting time working around the construction activity inside the building. The companies involved will be drilling several holes, or wells, about 15 inches in diameter through the floor in the sales department, which obviously means removing some carpeting and disrupting our display area for motorcycles. Several more wells will be punched throughout the parking area. These wells will then all be connected with a trench from one to the other and PVC pipe will be installed in the wells and trenches, eventually connecting to a number of extraction fans (like large vacuums) which will sit outside the building. The fans will run 24/7 for the next several years pulling vapor from the soil underneath the building and parking lot. The problem, they tell us, is that the PERC can eventually get into the ground water and seep into the runoff.

So here we go, We are looking at this involved process as an adventure---no sense getting upset about this (and like Bill Clinton said "what is, is). Come on down and watch the activity. Until we get the carpet reinstalled over the trenching it may be fun to watch us try to operate with this all going on. And the free coffee is always on anyway.

Ann and Keith Thye