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Residents and business groups urge city to preserve 'Charlie Brown' mural; downtown nonprofits ask council to waive $245 event permit fee
Summary
During public comment at the March 25 meeting Doug Rudolph urged the city to protect the 'Charlie Brown' water tower painting; Downtown Pullman Association speakers offered a $42,000 donation for downtown lighting and asked the council to consider waiving a newly adopted $245 permit fee for nonprofit events.
Several members of the public used the March 25 public comment period to press the council on local landmarks and event permitting.
Doug Rudolph, who identified himself as the student who painted the Charlie Brown character on the city water tower in 1963, asked the council to prevent the painting from being obscured by communications equipment. Rudolph said Charlie Brown has become a “much‑loved Pullman icon” and suggested repainting the figure on the south side of the tower—the only face currently free of electronics—if moving existing equipment would be impractical. He proposed donations to cover repainting costs.
Representatives of the Downtown Pullman Association (DPA) spoke in public comment and later during the consent/ordinance presentation. Bobby Bridal and Chelsea Whitney described the DPA’s donation of $42,000 (cash and materials) for pedestrian light pole banners and color‑changing lights planned for the High Street plaza and Main Street poles. Whitney also asked the council to consider waiving the newly adopted $245 permit fee for events in the city center for nonprofits, arguing the fee creates a barrier for small nonprofit‑run gatherings and disincentivizes activation of public plazas. She told the council the DPA has invested roughly $10,000 in tables and chairs for plaza activation and that paying the permit fee on top of that is a disincentive.
Council response and process notes: The city staff and council said the DPA’s donated lights and banners cannot be installed until final banner and basket mounts are available from the downtown construction project. Councilmembers expressed appreciation for the DPA donation. Council member Weller (and others) later requested a separate council agenda item to discuss waiving the fee for nonprofits; the council agreed to add a future agenda item on that topic.
Ending: The council accepted the DPA donation via ordinance later in the meeting and added a future agenda item to consider nonprofit fee waivers. No immediate policy change on the $245 fee was adopted at the March 25 meeting.
