Downtown Ovando gets a facelift

Downtown Ovando got a face lift with the buildings on the south side of the town's central square getting a distinctive new paint job this month, updating the look of the small downtown for the first time in years.

"Pretty cool, huh?" said Fred Valiton, owner of the Blackfoot Commercial Company, which sits on the opposite side ofthe square, facing the refreshed buildings. "I wasn't sure it would turn out as well as it did, but now that it's up, it looks real good."

"This is the first time in...over a decade that the south side of Ovando got a new paint job," said Kathy Schoendoerfer, who has run the Blackfoot Angler on one of the repainted storefronts for 20 years. "Basically, we're under new ownership."

Howie and Peggy Fly, who had owned the buildings that house the Blackfoot Angler, The Stray Bullet and the Blackfoot Challenge offices for many years, sold them recently to a local man who has lived in the area for about ten years, but who preferred not to be identified. The sale also included the house the Fly's had been living in.

"He's a straight shooter," said Howie, who described the buyer as a quiet person who wants to make sure Ovando doesn't die and who wants to keep the town the way it is.

For the Fly's that motivation is a familiar one. It was the same reason they bought and upgraded the Blackfoot Commercial Company back in 1996. They sold that business in 2014.

"That's part of the reason we sold it to him," he said, adding that if he'd been a person wanting to make major changes to the town, the answer would have been 'nope.'

Howie, who has been building furniture from wood salvaged off old buildings that once stood in Ovando, had been talking to the new owner about selling him a bar, when the conversation turned to the buildings. As it happened, Howie and Peggy had been planning to put them in on the market, with an eye toward retirement.

The man said he'd think about it, and Howie assumed he meant he'd contemplate the price of the handmade bar. Instead, he came back with a cash offer to buy the buildings.

Schoendoerfer said their new landlord immediately came in and told them he wanted to paint the storefronts and told the business owners to pick out their colors.

"We basically were in charge of our own destiny on the colors," she said.

She said Stray Bullet owner Colleen Stone opted for brick red for the top of the building, to make it more visible from Highway 200.

"I''ve always wanted to be green," Schoendoerfer said. "but we wanted to make sure we didn't look like Christmas."

She said the folks at the Blackfoot Challenge suggested they'd look good with a sage green, which makes her end of the building stand out more.

"The trim is a little bit brighter than I was expecting, but my eyes are really getting used to it, and guess what? Nobody misses me now! I'm just happy as hell with it. The last two times I've had to paint," she said, adding sarcastically, "that's why it always looked so good."

The Blackfoot Challenge stuck with a gray color with slightly contrasting trim.

"It looks a lot better than it did.," Howie admitted.

"That was one of the first things on our agenda, was the facelift," Peggy said. "We were getting ready to list it to be sold. We didn't even have to list it, so that was perfect."

Ironically, when Schoendoerfer posted that they were getting a facelift with an image of the painting contractor pressure washing the old paint off the fronts of the buildings, some people didn't realize they were getting new paint and liked the idea of the scoured wood giving it a 'ghost town' look.

Her response was: "OK, it does look kind of like a ghost town, but...bad for business."

Fortunately, an updated image she posted of the new paint job has received plenty positive feedback, with most commenters saying the buildings "look great."