Highway 58 Herald invites public to open house at new digs located on — of all places — Highway 58

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — The little building has housed a candy shop, a photo studio, a beauty salon and many other businesses since 1947. Now it is the new home for Oakridge’s first digital news organization, and you can have a look at it Saturday, June 5.

The open house is set for noon to 3 p.m. at the new Highway 58 Herald headquarters at 47581 Highway 58. That’s the compact commercial building next door to Midway Gardens and across the road from the Oakridge Fire Hall.

Refreshments will be served, and members of The Herald’s board of directors will be on hand to greet the public and welcome people to see the new facilities. Whatever COVID-19 safety protocols are in place as of Saturday will be responsibly observed. Visitors should bring masks, even though the open house is primarily an outdoor event with indoor visits limited to small numbers of guests being escorted in stages.

Highway 58 Herald is an online newspaper that anyone anywhere in the world can read for free by going to Highway58Herald.org on the internet. It is run by volunteers as a free public service to Oakridge-Westfir and all other communities in the Highway 58 corridor. The non-paid, volunteer board of directors has applied for 501(c)3 nonprofit status and expects to receive approval soon.

The new headquarters will provide editorial offices, interviewing areas and workspace for The Herald’s part-time bookkeeper and office manager, Amy Kelley of Oakridge.

Oakridge real estate broker Joy Kingsbury, secretary of The Herald’s board of directors, owns the building and has personally paid for all improvements, including installation of a heat pump, new windows and interior doors, and considerable other work. She is providing the site rent-free to The Herald as it gets established.

“It’s the perfect location that Joy has afforded The Herald,” says George Custer, president of the organization’s board. “We’re here for all of Oakridge and the surrounding communities. Stop by and check out our new digs.”

Custer, an Oakridge building contractor, and his wife Sayre have contributed countless hours of their own labor on the headquarters project, including installation of the signage. This week they are scurrying to complete exterior repairs and painting.

All furniture and equipment in the offices have been donated by board members, all of whom have made significant financial contributions to the startup. Amy Kelley is providing her own computer system. All reader donations have been reserved for news-related expenses such as website development and maintenance.

Volunteers will be on hand at the open house Saturday to help guests park on the grassy lot, also owned by Joy Kingsbury, adjacent to the new Herald offices.

“It is my belief that a local newspaper is the glue that holds a community together. This is of greatest importance to me in serving the community,” Kingsbury says. “I am delighted to be a small part of the whole.  I am grateful for those who serve on our board of directors, our distinguished editor, and most importantly, those of the community who will support this effort.”

Other board members who will be present include The Herald’s treasurer, Teiri Freborg, the banking and financial executive who lived in Oakridge for 10 years before retiring to the Polk County community of Dallas last year; Susan Knudsen Overmeyer, the Oakridge civic leader who is president of the Lane Electric Cooperative board; Eugene resident Dean Rea, the longtime journalism educator and newspaper editor who now serves as The Herald’s correspondent for Pleasant Hill, Lowell and other “Lower 58” communities; and yours truly, The Herald’s editor.

Brief biographies of all six board members can be found on The Herald’s site. No subscription is required for reading The Herald’s content. It is updated every day, usually multiple times.