For the week of November 19 - 24, 2003

Sport Shop
in Carey is closed,
faces foreclosure

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By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer

The Sport Shop, a 75-year-old rancher’s haunt in Carey, has closed. Owner Pat Walters has declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy, said Carey resident Keith Justesen.

The convenience store had many functions over the years, from being a casino when Idaho still allowed gambling to a beer hall and state liquor store. Justesen had the first mortgage on the property and is still part owner of the land the business sits on.

Justesen was scheduled to sign a foreclosure agreement today so he and his other relatives who share in the ownership can take responsibility for the property again.

Bill York, who owned the property in the early 1930s, developed the business and he sold it in the late 1930s to Louie Arrien for $35,000.

The story is that York lost the bar in a poker game to Arrien, Justesen said.

But, he doesn’t buy that because he has seen the signed deed that says there was a sale.

Through subsequent transactions Justesen’s family gained ownership of the establishment. Justesen himself ran the business from 1983 to 1997 when he sold the business to Bob and Pat Walters.

"It was a good business. I had done over a quarter million dollars a year (in sales)," he said. "(Walters) lost her customer base."

Walters’ husband died about a year ago, Justesen said.

When Justesen was in high school he said he and his pals used to go down to the Sport Shop at lunchtime to play "pea pool." Players would try to play for a set number of peas. If you got your number, you won a nickel, he said.

The Sport Shop was a beer hall until Justesen took over and the town of Carey was consolidated into a city, again. When the Carey leaders looked into becoming a city, they learned a city had already been established in 1919. Justesen got the first liquor license in the city and started selling whisky over the counter.

The Walters had a state liquor store on the property. The state collected all the accoutrements that go along with being a state liquor vendor last week, Justesen said.

He hopes the foreclosure will allow him to get the building tied up before winter.

"Just as soon as we get an agreement signed and posted, I will do what I have to, to make sure things don’t freeze up," he said.

"The building was open to the public for 75 years," said 93 Express Café owner Vonnie Olsen. "We don’t know what is going to happen but it is a real loss at this point."

Once the foreclosure proceedings are complete, Justesen intends to sell the property. He already has had inquiries.

"There is no way I can handle it," he said. "I am on oxygen. I don’t need to breathe all that second hand smoke. I have had an offer for a hotel."

 

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