The old Homestead Tavern set around empty for a while and was finally bought by Jim Elliott owner of High Desert Tax Service, who, was then located in the Aspen Alley Mall.
I had heard that Jim was working on the building to transform it into business/office center for his tax service business. When I heard that Jim was almost finished with the remodeling and had moved in for the 2014 tax season, I decided to stop by and see how he was doing.
I stopped by at about 8:30am one morning about a week ago and sure enough, there was Jim, busy as could be with a clients taxes.
I have to tell you that I had visited the old Homestead Tavern building numerous times when it was a tavern and it had that well used look to it & as I said before, it had been a popular watering hole.I was somewhat taken aback at the changes that Jim had made in his remodeling. This was a beautiful office building. The woodwork and attention to detail along with the layout truly spoke to the efforts Jim had taken to turn the building and space into a professional office.
Jim explained that because of the years of cigarette smoke when the building was a tavern, he was forced to "gut" the building, replacing almost everything, especially the venting, insulation and interior walls.
Someone ask Jim one time what advice he would give to community leaders? His response
was “Do everything the Right Way, not the old way!”. I can tell you that
in this effort he has been true to his own advice.
Jim is a mainstay in the La Pine Community He
is known to step up as a community supporter when there is a need.“ Jim has
also said that his mission is to set high standards for himself and staff and
provide the most professional service possible to their clients!”
There is no doubt that Jim and staff at High Desert Tax
Service are extremely busy these days, with it being tax season. But I kind (a)
feel that after April 15th
Jim would be more than willing to show off his new Business Center.
