Community Connection shows off new digs

The non-profit social service agency that covers Union, Wallowa, Baker and Grant counties held an open house at its new facility on west Adams Avenue Tuesday, showing off spacious digs a world apart from the cramped quarters on the second floor of the old fire hall building in downtown La Grande.

“We were so overcrowded before,” Davidson said. “Here we’ve got adequate space and room to grow.”

Community Connection is a non-profit corporation assisting senior citizens, children, low-income persons and disabled people with basic needs.

The agency, founded more than 40 years ago as the Eastern Oregon Development Council, employs over 80 people in its four-county service area, providing help with housing, health, utility costs, meals and more.

Prior to last September, Community Connection  headquarters was situated in a cramped space on the upper floor of the fire hall building owned by the city of La Grande.

It was never a good place to do business. Union County Commissioner Steve McClure, who chairs Community Connection’s board of directors, said a big problem was accessibility.

“It had a set of stairs that went on forever, and I never did understand why we didn’t get in trouble over handicapped accessibility,” McClure said during Tuesday’s open house.

Davidson added that a host of other issues made the old arrangement untenable.

“Once you got upstairs, there were air quality issues, the ceiling was falling and there were problems with the furnace. It was cold in there,” Davidson said.

About a year ago, Davidson and the board started looking in earnest for a new location. They learned that the Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District was getting ready to move from the solid, single-story brick building at  2802 Adams.

Community Connection bought the building from its absentee owners for $511,000. The deal closed in February. After design work was completed, the agency put the remodel contract out to bid.

Three contractors picked up bid packets, but only one submitted a proposal. The figure he named was too high, and Community Connection decided to go a different route.

“We knew that with the recession, there were a lot of carpenters out of work, so we hired one,” Davidson said.

The job went to Mike Roberts, a carpenter from Idaho. Roberts did the framing, with local companies contracting for plumbing heating and electrical work.

The staff moved in in September. With all said and done, the new facility sports three conference rooms, nine offices, a kitchen and bathrooms.

Now there’s plenty of space for the staff including the director and assistant director, the housing manager, housing rehabilitation specialists and accounting specialists.

“It’s just nice to have the room to move around,” said Denny Ferguson, the agency’s weatherization rehabilitation and auditing inspector.

Davidson said she’s especially happy with the conference rooms, which are equipped with the latest in Internet technology.

“Before, we didn’t have a phone and Internet in our meeting area. We’ve just come into the 21st century,” she said.

She added that the spacious and well-equipped kitchen is a big plus as well.

“It’s one of our favorite places. Before we were washing dishes in the bathroom sink,” she said.

While the new facility helps staff to do their jobs better, Davidson said the real pay-off is in accessibility for clients.

“We’re getting a lot more foot traffic, a lot more seniors stopping in to talk. We can provide better service to the community,” she said.