Be it ever so humble, it’s The Herald’s new home, and the public will get a sneak peek on June 5

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — It’s still a work in progress, but the little vintage building at 47581 Highway 58 will open soon as headquarters for Oregon’s newest online news organization, Highway 58 Herald.

Most recently home to a beauty salon, the building now provides editorial and business offices for The Herald, the nonprofit digital newspaper that launched Feb. 28 as a free public service to Oakridge-Westfir and other communities along the Highway 58 corridor. The site is toward the west end of Oakridge, not quite directly across the highway from the fire hall.

“It’s the perfect little office for The Herald,” said George Custer, president of The Herald’s board of directors. “We’ll be easy to find by both locals and passers-by. Hopefully, that will be a good thing.”

Built in 1947, the building was home to the Bastian family garbage-collection service for many years. Through subsequent decades it housed a photography studio, an insurance business, a ceramics business, a real estate office, a second-hand shop, the salon and other retail businesses and services. The owner is Oakridge real estate broker Joy Kingsbury, secretary and founding member of The Herald’s board.

Kingsbury and Custer said all recent and forthcoming improvements to the building have either been performed or paid for by board members. Custer, an Oakridge building contractor, has done much of the work, including installation of the signage and interior carpentry with new doors and customized counters. Kingsbury personally financed the installation of new windows, blinds, a heat pump and other improvements.

Exterior work, including painting, is next up along with final improvements indoors.

Although The Herald’s new digs are not yet open to the public, directors are planning an informal open house for the public on Saturday, June 5. Custer said it would be a low-key but festive event that adheres to all COVID-19 protocols that are in place at the time. A more extensive “grand opening” for The Herald will come later, perhaps this fall, he said.

Eventually, the new headquarters will offer regular office hours, staffed by The Herald’s part-time bookkeeper/office manager, Amy Kelley of Oakridge. Tentative plans include the offering of copying services and the retail sale of office supplies — with all proceeds helping to defray the operational costs of the news service. Although The Herald also receives a modest amount of advertising revenues, survival of the newspaper requires donations and volunteerism.