Country Store faces decision about its future
Country Store volunteers Anita Targerson and Sue Yurosko are among the many church members who help sift, sort and sell used items for the nonprofit thrift store. (Kristi Niemeyer/Leader)
Lynn Weaver takes in some morning sunshine on a bench outside of the Country Store. (Kristi Niemeyer/Leader)
The Country Store, a fixture in Polson for more than 50 years, is wrestling with a major decision about its future this week.
The nonprofit, operated by volunteers from 10 local churches, is facing a decision to move, close or try to buy its current home on Main Street. The store is located in a building owned by the American Legion, which has decided to put it on the market.
The store performs a unique service. It sells clothes, kitchen items and other household goods donated by the community. Proceeds are then given to several area nonprofits, and what remains is dispersed quarterly to the 10 churches.
Recipients of the Country Store’s largesse include the Boys and Girls Club, Cheerful Heart, Helping Hands, Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, senior centers in Polson and Ronan, and Tribal Waves – Youth with a Mission.
The Country Store is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays, with each church staffing the store for half a day. Volunteers sort, press and hang clothing donations, while discarding items that are broken, stained or too dirty or damaged to resell.
“I enjoy it,” says volunteer and board secretary Phyllis Dresen, who is in her 80s. “It gives me an outing.” Most volunteers are in their 70s or 80s, she adds.
The store has been in its current location since 1990, and before that was in the vicinity of the post office. Dresen estimates that between 30 and 50 people visit each day, with the numbers higher during the summer.
The Legion has offered to sell the building to the Country Store for less than the market value, is asking for a $50,000 down payment and will carry the mortgage. The down payment is $10,000 less than the $60,000 the store brought in last year.
“The store doesn’t have it,” says Dresen of the down payment.
She says the board’s 10 members, one from each church, are “pretty well divided” on the path forward. At a recent meeting, they voted 6-4 to gauge by next week whether the community is willing to chip in the $50,000 down payment needed to buy the building.
“We want the community to send us cash donations toward the down payment,” she says, adding that matching funds may be available. The Country Store’s address is P.O. Box 1433, Polson, 59860.
According to Jeff Nelson, a trustee for the American Legion Hardwick Post 112 that owns the building, members would prefer to have the Country Store continue in its current location.
“We just want them to succeed where they’re at and continue to be an asset to the community,” he said. “We want to work with them as much as we can.”
He says the building was constructed in the 1920s and was purchased by the American Legion after World War II. Veterans gathered in the upstairs meeting room for many years and rented out the downstairs to a variety of businesses.
“It just got to be too hard for our members to go up and down that stairway,” Nelson says. The post began meeting at the VFW in 2005 before buying their current meeting place on Third Ave. E.
Legion members recently decided to sell the Main Street building to pay off their new digs. The building was appraised at $275,000-$300,000, but they’re willing to sell it for $225,000 to the Country Store, and to carry the mortgage at 3% interest. The building also includes an upstairs space that’s currently rented to a day care and could provide the store with an additional revenue stream.
“We’re hoping they can give us a yes or no within two weeks,” Nelson said Monday. “Even if it takes 90 days or 100 days to raise the funds – as long as they let us know they intend to go ahead and purchase, it’s kind of a gentleman’s agreement.”
