By Pepper Fisher
SEQUIM – The story we published 2 weeks ago about the owner of the Red Carpet Car Wash in Sequim being fined $900 by Labor and Industries, supposedly for not complying with Covid-19 guidelines, generated so much response from sympathetic KONP readers and listeners that Keith Beck says business is now booming.
Beck’s appeal of the fine was conducted virtually on Tuesday of this week with a representative from L&I, and we asked Beck how that went.
“Actually, the L&I boys are actually not too bad. They’re easy to talk with. And the guy that I talked to today, the guy that is in charge of the media, told me, ‘You need to get ahold of your local news.’ I go: ‘We only have one. It’s called KONP, and they already did a story on it.’ And he goes: ‘Well that’s good. You can give them an update that, you know, it’s in review, they understand…”
Beck says he likes his chances of the penalty being dismissed. He says they told him case is moving to the bottom of the pile because, at $900, it’s one of the lower fines in the state. He says they offered to drop the case right there if he was willing to pay one quarter of the fine, or $225.
“I said, ‘No. I’m fighting it. I’m not going away’ , is what I told him. My exact words. ‘I am not going away’. So I told him, ‘I have three lawyers that contacted me and they would do a pro bono to fight this’.”
Beck hopes it won’t come to that, but says he was contacted by 3 separate law offices offering to represent him if the case is not dismissed.
As for the carwash business since our story…
“Off the charts. The day that came out, I did a hundred and sixty four cars, and I’ll bet you 75% of people go, ‘We’re here to support you’. Everybody comes in, gives us a thumbs up. I mean, it’s no different than, you know, these small restaurants that are doing outdoor dining. I go to them. I mean, do I want to sit outside and eat? No. But will I? Yep, to support them. And they’re all coming to support me down there, which was, we literally had three days in a row, well over a hundred cars each day. It was awesome.”
We’ll follow up with Keith after he hears back from L&I sometime in January.
(Photos provided by Keith Beck)