Boeing Employees CU to the rescue for lawmakers' financial service

OLYMPIA, Wash.- State legislators, lobbyists and staff, who have scarce time to travel far for access to a cash machine, have depended on Washington State Employees CU's ATM located in the state Capitol building for convenient access to their money. So when the credit union's ATM was put out-of-service after the state Capitol building in Olympia was damaged from the recent 6.8-magnitude earthquake and marked off-limits, Boeing Employees CU (BECU) in Tukwila, Wash., came to the rescue. In the time-honored credit union tradition of people-helping-people, BECU decided it could help and has placed an ATM mobile unit in the library parking lot right behind the Capitol for convenient access for the lawmakers. But the $3.4-billion BECU has gone one step further. It has made access to the ATM available to anyone who has access to the parking lot. There are no surcharge fees from BECU to anyone who uses it. The mobile ATM will remain operational until the end of the session in late April. It is open 24 hours a day/seven days a week and can be used to make withdrawals, transfers and inquiries. It does not take deposits. The ATM has been around the state for other remote usage. BECU relies on it for fairs, Seattle waterfront concerts, ballparks and is scheduled to be set up later at Cheney's Stadium in Tacoma when the ball team, Tacoma Rainiers, play. Gary Gardner, credit union lobbyist initiated the idea of making the mobile ATM available to state lawmakers after hearing lawmakers complain about not having any access to an ATM. "The legislative facilities folks are ecstatic.I'm hoping BECU's gesture will buy us a lot of goodwill from legislators, staff and lobbyists," Gardner said. Convenience to financial transactions, after all, transcends any disagreements lawmakers might have with bills they endorse, no matter their party affiliation. -gariglio@earthlink.net