New Owners Of Valleyford Store Plan To Keep Friendly Atmosphere In/Around: Valleyford

New owners will open the old Valleyford Store this week.

John and Letty Misner, who had run the small grocery store since 1992, have sold it.

John and Judy Van Voorhis, of the Valley, purchased the business May 4.

Valleyford residents can expect the same sort of friendly atmosphere and variety of goods that the store previously offered, said John Van Voorhis.

The Misners, who moved here from California, had hoped that Valleyford’s continuing growth would establish a niche for the convenience store.

Real estate agent Ken Mathews, who handled the transaction for KC Properties, also lives in Valleyford.

“It’s growing and continuing to grow,” he said. The Freeman School District attracts families, Mathews said.

Builders are raising homes on five and 10-acre tracts.

“The fact that (the Valleyford Store) is zoned business is very beneficial,” he said.

The store, in a turn-of-the-century building, has a feed store in the back and houses the Valleyford post office.

Letty Misner said her husband was itching for a job in the outdoors.

“After doing it for several years,” she said, “it wasn’t his line of work. He’s not an indoor person.” John Misner is now a construction worker.

“We tried lots of different things,” she said. “We feel it was pretty successful. Our philosophy was to try to have a little bit of everything.”

The Misners will keep renting the house in back of the store for a while.

They then plan to move to Spokane’s North Side.

“We’re looking forward to a new phase of life,” Letty Misner said.

Meanwhile, John Van Voorhis is eager to get the store up and running.

His grandfather owned a grocery store in Tekoa, Wash., and his parents owned it for short period, too.

“I grew up in the store,” Van Voorhis said.

“I’m ready to give up a lot to give that small-town, country store kind of feel. We just want to meet the needs of the community there,” he said.

A Valley resident for more than 20 years, Van Voorhis said he’ll have plenty of opportunity to get to know the Valleyford community.

Van Voorhis said the store hours are 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., six days a week.

“I’m going to practically live there 12 hours a day,” he said.