Smoke Signals
10 DECEMBER 1,2009
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Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Hope still bubbles up at
the restaurant and lounge
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
The sign on the door of Fort Hill
Fast Trip, the gas station and con
venience store, reads: "We regret
to inform you that we are closing
our doors. We appreciate all of your
business and support."
Windows are boarded up.
Next door, in front of Fort Hill
Restaurant, a sign visible from the
highway reads: "ODOT, tear down
this wall," reminiscent of the words
President Ronald Reagan used in
1987 to prod the Soviet Union to
tear down the Berlin Wall.
Such was the scene after Monday,
Oct. 26, when Rick Ven paid the
last of his employees, and the first
shoe dropped at Fort Hill's com
mercial hub.
Ven's three-year venture in the
gas and convenience store business
followed nearly a dozen in the same
space when Truax Harris Energy
LLC operated the site, and many
more under other local ownership
before that.
Ben and Terry Goforth have op
erated Fort Hill Restaurant on the
site next door for almost 30 years.
Fort Hill Lounge, at the back of the
restaurant, has thrived for more
than 15 years.
But Highway 18 safety concerns
put these businesses on a collision
course with the Oregon Depart
ment of Transportation, as well
as Yamhill and Polk counties. For
more than a decade, the govern
mental entities have been moving
a process forward to improve traffic
safety in the area, even recognizing
that safety improvements would
come at great cost to the Fort Hill
businesses.
The $18 million project that
walled the highway off from the
businesses and eliminated an in
tersection was completed earlier
this year. Some say that the wall
has only moved the traffic safety
issues to the west where custom
ers realize that they have passed
their Fort Hill destination and try
to turn around.
A few years ago, said Sarah
(Goforth) Jones, daughter to the
owners, "We had two cooks, three
waitresses, a bus person and a
dishwasher, and we kept them all
busy through their shifts."
Today, Jones handles a shift
alone with cook Derek Doornbas.
"When my dad was working, the
service was always so fast that
waitress Joyce Elmer knew better
than to hang her ticket up unless
she was ready to pack it out," said
Jones.
On a recent Friday morning,
though her father is no longer work
ing, it wasn't saying so much that
the service is still very fast. Barely
n table was occupied, though three
filled in before too long.
Business is down for the restau
rant by 50 percent, Jones said, and
the same figures hold for Fort Hill
lounge, according to bartender and
1 2-year manager Jennifer Cizck.
"I cried the night they closed,"
Cizck said of the gas station and
convenience store. "Even though
we're three different businesses,
I've always thought of us as fam-
iiy"
As far as the gas station and
convenience store are concerned,
seven-year employee Don Beck
said, "I knew as soon as the wall
went up that we were through. You
know, there's plenty of room for a
right-off."
The complex interplay of safety
and community business hinges
today on the cost of access rights.
Early in 2008, ODOT paid almost
$1 million to Truax Harris Energy
LLC for "right-on, right-off access
to the property, said Don Jordan,
ODOTs District 3 manager. To see
the access returned, even if traffic
safety concerns could be managed,
"They'd have to pay back the cost
of the access rights."
As current owner Mike Souza
understands it, the access poten
tially could be purchased for some
$350,000. "I'd rather put $100,000
into the property," said Souza.
Already, Souza has invested
nlmost half that amount into build
ing a fenced and covered outdoor
smoking area, complete with tables
and a stage.
Souza purchased the property
in August 2008 from Truax Harris
knowing that direct highway access
would disappear. He believes he
can make this property go without
that access.
Try to find a smoking area that
can compete with this," he said,
even as he, Ven and a half-dozen
others from the community and
businesses pulled together to empty
out the convenience store facility.
Souza is not giving up, not by a
long shot. "If we can make it worth
their while to take the exit, we can
make this work," he said. "With
education and time, I think we can
be back to where we were or even
Above, Todd Smock packs up
bottles of soda as he helps clear
out Fast Trip Gas and Food Mart
at Fort Hill on Friday, Nov. 6. The
store closed on Monday, Oct. 26.
Business has been dropping since
May when the Oregon Department
of Transportation completed the
Highway 18 road project and a new
concrete barrier was erected.
At left. Fast Trip Gas and Food
Mart owner Rick Ven cleans out the
manager's office of the convenience
store on Friday, Nov. 6.
better as a destination stop."
The lounge is sponsoring dart,
pool and golf tournaments. It is
advertising Ladies Nights with spe
cial drink prices, and Super Ducks
nights with a free drink going to
anybody wearing an Oregon Ducks'
T-shirt or hat.
"The community is what keeps the
doors open," Souza said. "They've
been extremely supportive of keep
ing us here. That's why I want to
improve the place: to give back to
the community, to make this the
kind of place they want."
For the west end of the building
that housed the convenience store,
Souza is talking up plans for a one
bedroom apartment.
Sweeping his arms around the
empty rooms, he said, "Everybody
that hears wants to know more
about it."
The Goforths haven't thrown in
the towel, either, said Jones, who
practically grew up in the restau
rant. "She's a fighter," she said of
her mother.
And the first business failure at
Fort Hill hns not been lost on the
state Department of Transporta
tion, either.
"We're still looking into options,"
Jordan said. "What it would take (to
provide the businesses with direct
access), considering the rules and
the laws we work under." B