In what has literally been a trial by fire, Sharon Storm has experienced the best of rural life during the past year.
She took over the busy 50-seat Plumas CafŽ, where the same crowd gathered for coffee and home-cooked meals each day.
Then, she watched as the cafŽ was destroyed last summer by a fire that started in the store next door.
But this week, she will watch as local tradespeople begin building the Plumas Inn, a new building rising from the ashes, with help from about 60 townsfolk who bought $1,000 shares in the business.
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“This community has just been totally overwhelming to me,” said Storm, a lifelong city dweller who moved to the west-central Manitoba town, population 350, last January.
Storm is moved by the support. In a city, she said, it’s rare to know the neighbors. When a restaurant closes, few wonder what happened to the owners.
“Nobody thinks personally about the next person too much,” she said.
For 20 years, Storm worked for Northern Telecom, first in Winnipeg and then in Calgary, where she met and got engaged to Randy Watt. Watt was retiring from the military and wanted to return to his hometown of Plumas to run the family grocery story.
Storm decided to try out country living and took a year’s leave of absence from work. Together, they bought the local cafŽ to “give me something to do,” she said.
The two-storey building was about 55 years old, a fixture on Burrows Ave., the main drag in Plumas. Catering to area farmers, the cafŽ dished out bacon and eggs, liver and onions, and other home-made “meat and potatoes” specials.
The fire not only left in peril Storm’s future in the town, it left residents without a place to gather and eat out.
“It’s really the only meeting place in town,” she said. “What is left if it closes?”
Storm and Watt had some insurance, enough to cover the mortgage, but not nearly enough to build a new building and replace the contents.
To justify the cost of a new building, they knew they would have to add a lounge and several motel rooms.
With help from Jason Denbow of the Heartland Community Futures Development Corporation, a former Plumas boy himself, Storm and Watt began sketching a business plan.
Their retirement savings and an equal amount of borrowed money would only cover about two-thirds of the $350,000 cost of the inn.
So they hit on the idea to sell at least $115,000 worth of shares.
The shares aren’t a big money-making venture, said Storm, but gave people the chance to ensure their town had a cafŽ.
Shareholders are guaranteed an annual return of four percent, but cash flow projection show they could earn double that figure. After the first year, Storm and Watt can start buying back the shares at the original value.
Within 10 days of presenting the idea and business plan to a community meeting at the Legion hall, they had raised enough share money, although the offer is open until June.
As for the inn, it has to be finished by mid-July, said Storm. The four rooms are already booked up for summer weddings.
