Adventists set up in industrial park
Fire destroyed former home Dec. 28
When the headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Upper Columbia Conference on south Grove Road burned down on Dec. 28, it wasn’t only office space that was lost. The regional organization also lost the popular Adventist Book Center and space that housed a television station and a radio station.
“We worked out of Adventist churches in the area,” said communications director Jay Wintermeyer. “We were scattered all over.”
What made the difference, however, was the computer servers rescued from the burning building. Conference staff was up and running within 12 hours of the blaze, Wintermeyer said. “Our IT department has just outdone themselves,” he said.
The building is still a charred hulk, but the group is now working out of new temporary headquarters at 15918 E. Euclid Ave. in the Spokane Valley Industrial Park. The 45 staffers who work in the office are putting aside e-mail and cell phone communication in favor of being under the same roof. “It’s a real blessing to come back together again,” Wintermeyer said.
Staff will work out of the building until a new headquarters is rebuilt at the former location, 3715 S. Grove Road in the West Plains area. The conference is still working to determine how much the insurance company will pay to replace the building and what it might cost. A committee will be formed soon to select an architect and move forward with