By DAVID TELLER
Staff Reporter
Most Cheney residents probably won't even notice any difference.
Two long time Cheney businesses have changed hands and neither owner plans any abrupt changes.
Joy Dahl officially took over as owner of Chet's Flowers on Aug. 8, resurrecting the business. The current owner, Fay Montecucco is retiring and had decided to close it at the end of July after operating the business since 1972.
Dahl knows what she got herself into buying a floral business. She is accredited by the American Institute of Floral Designers, an internationally accredited foundation of designers and is also an FTD master designer. She also worked for Pacific Wholesale Florists in Spokane when she previously lived in Eastern Washington.
The Polson Mont. native returns to the Eastern Washington area after living in Liberty Lake. She left the area about six years ago. The decision to return came when her husband, Jim, retired from his job in Shohomish, Wash., and the couple decided to settle in the West Plains on land he bought 20 years ago.
Joy wasn't ready to retire. She wanted to go back to work and said she came here looking for a business to buy, and she heard about Chet's.
“He bought me a job,” Dahl said of her husband, who is a silent partner in the business.
The Dahls, who are newlyweds, plan to operate Chet's in much the same ideology of the retiring owner.
“Everything is going to go on like Fay is here,” Dahl said.
Dahl said she'll introduce new merchandise like scarves, purses and hats. She said she might introduce some vases and art too. There will be some cosmetic changes, like new paint but Dahl stresses the floral aspect of the business will remain the same.
The Washtub in Cheney has a new owner too.
Effective Sept.1, retired retail manager and former construction worker Frank Diteman and his wife, Kathy, will be the owners.
The Ditemans moved to Cheney about a year and a half ago and Frank said he was looking for a business in Cheney that was profitable and had potential. Running a business is a second career for Diteman
After working in construction for many years, Diteman tried a different venue when he took a job managing Harbor Freight Tools in the Spokane Valley. Despite the business having some difficulty, like a total loss fire in 1999, Diteman remained with the company for 10 years before retiring last December.
Diteman said he was attracted to The Washtub because he likes the business and sees a lot of potential. Being pretty good with tools, he said he could eliminate a lot of overhead doing maintenance and repair himself on the business's 63 Maytag machines, many of which are new.
“It's all good stuff,” Diteman said.
He said he doesn't plan any big changes. He said he's going to clean things up and paint and repair whatever needs to be. He said the prices will stay the same, but he wants to increase sales by reaching more West Plains businesses.
The Washtub is open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 9.a.m to 9 p.m. and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
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