Judy Costello poses outside the Little Falls Community Center.
Linda Newton makes paper-crafted flower arrangements out of old magazine photos at the Little Falls Community Center. She is one of several community members who have loaned their talents to the community center, offering free classes in a number of different categories.
Linda Wade and Bob Todd work on a puzzle at the Little Falls Community Center. In addition to crafting classes and kids’ movies, the center offers many opportunities for citizens of Vader to simply enjoy each others’ company.
When Linda Smith moved to Vader 10 years ago, she was looking for somewhere she could live cheaply.
What she found was a community where neighbors know one another well and the community pulls together in good times and bad.
“The lifestyle here is just like it was 100 years ago,” Smith said. “People don’t have to go to a nursing home here. There’s enough loving, caring people who live here and will take care of them.”
Vader residents have a plucky sense of optimism about their town’s future despite recent setbacks. In 2007, the town’s school was shuttered and the condemned building demolished. Then, between 2009 and 2011, the town saw water system failures, financial woes and even a petition to disincorporate the city, which ultimately failed but left many still wondering what the city’s future would hold. Mayor Ken Smith said he and many others have finally decided it is time to put those things in their past.
“We’ve gone so far and had so many challenges but I have a lot more hope and optimism than I’ve ever had for this community in the 10 years I’ve been mayor,” Ken Smith said.
In May and June, two “big meetings” were held in Vader to discuss starting a small town economic revitalization project much like what has been successful in nearby towns such as Toledo, Winlock and Onalaska.
Dubbed Vision for Vader, the grassroots committee is in the process of drafting bylaws and starting the process to become a nonprofit that would work on projects that could revitalize the town, not only as a place to live but also a place to visit. That effort is music to the ears for resident and city council candidate Judy Costello. Through Vader’s trials, her vision has remained for the town she has called home for the past 10 years — that Vader is a good place to live and good things can happen in this tiny town of about 630 residents. Costello and her husband own one of only three businesses located in the Vader city limits. She purposefully chose the city for a lower cost of living. She said they quickly became charmed with the city’s small town feel and began looking for ways to help Vader live up to its potential. About a month ago, Costello opened Little Falls Community Center next door to her thrift store on A street.
“We had wanted a key place for everyone to come to that wasn’t city affiliated or church affiliated,” Costello said. “This is a great place for people to just come.”
“It’s not political or religious affiliated, it’s just a community gathering place,” said Linda Smith.
The 501c3 non-profit thrift store financially supports the community center, which has quickly gained a following offering free crafting classes and movies for youngsters. On a recent afternoon, Linda Newton visited the center to work on paper crafting projects she would be teaching later in the week.
“I’m really enjoying this community center,” Newton said. “I’m meeting people from Vader here I have never met before.”
Costello said the close-knit community has the potential to make a revitalization project a reality because that is how they work. She gave an example of the city’s eighth annual Fourth of July gathering and fireworks display that this year will take place on the old school site. The effort started with four people and kind of “snowballed” Costello said. After the initial event, six couples in town came to Costello’s shop faithfully every month and gave $20 toward the fireworks display.
“That covered it for two years,” Costello said.
This year, the town’s May Day festival did not happen for the first time in 65 years. Costello said the loss of that event was felt keenly in the town and plans have already begun to bring a “May Festival” back to Vader next year.
Costello’s store and the community center are located on A Street right across the street from Vader’s Post Office. She joked with the opening of the community center, citizens are seeing cars on A Street for the first time in a very long time. The small strip is the last remaining piece of Vader’s historic downtown, and it is the future hope for the city as well. Vader received a $500,000 grant this year to repave A Street and add landscaping and lighting to the strip. Ken Smith said the project, set to take place in the spring of 2018, will hopefully draw more businesses to the area.
“It’s going to make our downtown pop,” he said. “We believe with all of this coming together we’ll get a spark, a catalyst, that will make great things happen here.”
Another program bringing hope to the citizens of Vader is a preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds planned on the former Vader School site by the Castle Rock School District. Superintendent Jim Mabbott explained that in the past year he held 18 focus groups to help plan for future ventures.
“In Vader, I heard a number of things, but one of them was they would like to see a preschool there so their little ones don’t have to travel so far to school,” Mabbott said.
The Vader School was officially shuttered in 2007 and the district was officially absorbed into the Castle Rock School District. Because of state enrollment policies, students can choose to attend schools in closer areas such as Winlock and Toledo, but there are many who make the trek, said Costello.
“We have 4-year-olds taking the bus one hour each way,” Costello said. “That’s a long day for little ones.”
Sometime this summer, the Castle Rock School District plans to site a two-classroom modular building to the former Vader school site. Mabbott said the plan is that if eight or more students enroll this year, classes will be held there for the 2017-2018 school year. If not, the building will be used by the district for other purposes and the preschool will begin the following year. The preschool will be free for any student who qualifies for special education classes and tuition will be determined by a sliding scale for all others.
“However, we’ve made it clear to people in Vader that no one will be turned down due to lack of funding,” Mabbott said.
Mabbott, who lives in Centralia, attended both Big Meetings in Vader. He said a similar initiative worked well for Castle Rock, which at one point saw 46 percent of its downtown as empty storefronts and now has an average about 6 percent vacancy at any time. With his own interactions with Vader, Mabbott said they have a clear vision and the potential to go far.
“I think with the energy I’m seeing in Vader, I’m confident they’re going to be successful,” Mabbott said.
