Ruston restaurant offers free dessert for speeders

Welcome back to Good Day Live 1120 on your Thursday afternoon. I'm AJ Janadot. We're going to take you now down to Pierce County, specifically near Ruston, where there's been some issues for that community when it comes to speeding tickets. We've been talking about speeding tickets in Pierce County, Tacoma area this week. There are two new speed cameras right in the north part of Tacoma that somehow captured, the city says, about 400,000 speeders in a month time and so now the city is saying that is way too many that they can even handle they're going to have to create some sort of lottery system which is a wild word to choose people who are speeding uh thousands and thousands of speeders in that part of Tacoma and so they're going to pick a hundred people to give tickets out and that's happening now going into the part of Pierce County and Ruston we have Kohl's Bar and Grill and joining me now is Seth Colby. Seth, you have come up with an idea to kind of address the situation that you guys are seeing. First off, thanks so much for taking some time to join me. Tell me what you guys are dealing with down there. Thanks for having us, AJ. First off, the cameras down in Ruston are separate from the ones over on Marine View where you were talking about as many as 400,000 or whatever speeders. We are seeing some speeders down in Ruston. Ruston is a small town that separates Tacoma from some of Parks Tacoma's most beautiful properties. Ruston ends up being a thoroughfare for a lot of folks, and we're just looking for a creative way to get people, not just to slow down, but to stop. So no one ever likes getting a ticket in the mail, but we thought maybe a little sweet consolation to bring folks down into Ruston and come see us still. So let's talk about it. You have this thing where if you get a ticket in Ruston for speeding, you are saying they're going to get a free dessert is that right we're not encouraging people to speed but yeah if you end up with a speeding ticket and really anywhere in Tacoma if you get one of these tickets and you need a little a little blessing to your day come down and see us at Kohl's and yeah we'll give you a free free dessert I think that's interesting that you mentioned that Seth that this is not any sort of um award for speeding or you're not you know encouraging speeding because honestly i had a couple people um mention that something to the effect of like is this is this what's happening so you i didn't even have to ask that you said this is not what we're doing we're just trying to bring a smile to your day uh because nobody likes to get a ticket in the mail yeah that's it we appreciate all of our partners first responders and law enforcement we're not encouraging people to do anything that would put our community at odds with with them or not being safe it's not that at all just trying to have fun with something that it's being met with mixed feelings in the community yeah so can you talk to me about that because um that area of Ruston is if you don't know it um like you mentioned it is not a part of Tacoma Ruston is its own municipality on its own uh it is kind of a quiet community so the idea of people speeding around to me kind of is surprising you guys are based uh Cold Bar and grill in that kind of part of Ruston right where it's developed um tell me kind of how long the the cameras have been and what you've been hearing from your customers as well as the people who live in that area uh the cameras have been up for a month and a half the first uh intro period was just sending out warnings uh they just went live i believe october 3rd part of our aim and and kind getting the word out there virally was just to let our guests know that they were there um anybody who's driven through Ruston it's like many small towns in our region uh it's it's legendary you don't speed in Ruston you don't want to get a ticket without the cameras that was the stigma that was associated with that town not one stop light not a lot of not a lot of space to speed And if it really is an issue in our community, we're not saying that people should speed. Again, drive safely in Ruston. But yeah, it's just a small pocket community down there that separates Tacoma from the Vashon Ferry and Point Defiance, Point Ruston, Ruston Way waterfront. So how does this work? Specifically, if you have a ticket in Ruston was kind of the pitch. But you're saying anyone, really, if you have a speeding ticket, can come down to Cole's and basically, you know, you're going to try to put a smile on their day? What started as just affecting our immediate local community down there in Ruston, all the folks in the news have been apt to tell us how many tickets they're getting across in northeast Tacoma over there. So, yeah, we can brighten a few more days. Come on over. Perfect. and then um tell me about Cole's Bar and Grill uh how long you guys been around and when can people come by your hours and uh what you guys are known for Cole's is an old historic building down in Ruston that we renovated in 2016 uh amazing food down there we've got breakfast seven days a week come down and see us from 9 a.m till 11 p.m most nights um the food is fantastic the view is incredible you get all the the beauty of being down in Ruston and being right there on the water without having to pay the typical waterfront pricing so so it's a wonderful place you got to come down and check us out yeah no it's uh you know it's a beautiful part of that area in Pierce County if you don't know to look for it you might even miss it um and if you unfortunately get caught going a little too fast you can stop by Cole's Bar and Grill and uh show them your ticket and have another reason to come back down. Seth, appreciate you taking some time to talk to me. Thank you, AJ.