Last call for Grange Hall? Wylie to play Steptoe Grange as group starts effort to save hall

Residents of Steptoe have called a meeting later this month about the future of the community’s grange hall.

Members of the Steptoe Grange and the Steptoe Community Fund told the Gazette last month the hall’s doors would close for good this month.

Members of the community fund tried for years to purchase the 80-year-old building from the state grange, but could not convince the state Grange to sell.

Fund members had since been hit with high repair bills after a storm blew over a chimney in November. They also decided the cost of maintenance, taxes and insurance was too high to pay for a building they don’t own.

Steptoe Community Fund primarily awards scholarships for college-bound graduates of the Steptoe School.

Preservation of the building will be the topic of a meeting scheduled for June 22 at 7 p.m. Officials from the Pomona grange and the state grange have agreed to attend the community meeting, according to Ginna Scholz.

The building was constructed by four Steptoe families in the 1920s and was deeded to the state Grange about a decade later.

The grange hall’s last show could be this Friday, as Wylie Gustafson and his Wild West Show play a benefit concert for the American Cancer Society at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25.

Gustafson’s concert will be sponsored by the courthouse Relay for Life team.