Steptoe groups to meet on Grange

Residents of Steptoe will host a fund-raising spaghetti feed Sunday, Oct. 2, to save the Steptoe Grange Hall.

Steptoe Grange and the Steptoe Community Fund are combining resources to keep up the community’s “Grand Old Girl,” which for generations has hosted wedding receptions, funerals and community parties.

Co-organizer Lavonne Hall said Sunday’s meeting will focus on ways to pay the costs of maintaining the 80-year-old building.

The building for the past several years has been kept up using money from the community fund, which receives most of its income from donations by the Steptoe Fire Department. The fund also awards scholarships for college-bound graduates who attended grade school at Steptoe.

The fund was hit with high repair bills after a storm blew over a chimney in November. Members also decided the cost of maintenance, taxes and insurance was too high to pay for a building they don’t own.

The hall also has a list of much needed repairs, including plumbing replacement in the men’s bathroom, stabilizing of the floor joists, new sidewalks, a new finish on the floor and a new coat of interior paint.

Steptoe residents have tried several times to buy the building from the Washington State Grange. Officials with the grange in June said the state grange typically holds ownership of buildings in case others decide to re-form a local grange.

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

The groups are asking for volunteer workers and want those who attend Sunday’s dinner to come armed with fundraising ideas.