Reece, who has lived in Idaho, Washington and Oregon his whole life, moved to Tonasket last October.
“My family lives in Idaho. I work and when I can take a couple days off. I run to Idaho to visit my family. My family comes here, spends three or four days and then goes back,” said Reece.
In the near future, Reece hopes to begin his search for a home to purchase in the area for his family. He is looking forward to when his family can be with him full-time.
Reece said to give an idea of how long he has worked in the car business, “ Noah talked to me about a car before he built the ark.”
Reece said he started in the automotive industry as a detailer. He continued to gain experience by working as a service helper, a lube technician, parts technician, sales, and onto managing. He has shouldered the role of General Sales Manager and General Manager of a few different stores over the years.
In a small town community, like Tonasket and Oroville, which he says he has come to love and appreciate,“when you shake someone’s hand, you have a deal,” said Reece.
“I like the people. It’s a great community. People are always trying to actively help others and I think that’s fantastic,” said Reece.
Although it’s a change of pace, Reece has come to love the slower pace in the valley and appreciates that his commute to and from work includes a traffic jam of five cows crossing the road from time to time.
Reece believes in “local first.” When the community buys local, they participate in creating jobs and keeping a portion of the taxes collected within the community. Ok Chevy provides jobs for 15 people.
“I’m proud and I want to make them all successful. More importantly, I want them all to be happy,” said Reece.
First things first, upon arriving on the scene at Ok Chevy, Reece bought a big barbecue. At least once a month, he barbecues for the entire store and their families.
“OK Chevy has been around forever. It has gone through some good times and it went through some hard times. I want to keep as much local community business as possible. It helps support the community and our community members,” said Reece.
From his perspective, when people buy local, they are doing business with their neighbor.
“You come down here, you purchase a vehicle and do some business with us and you bring it in for service, we break our tails to make sure that can happen,” she said.
OK Chevy will host their next community yard sale in June. They will empty all cars from their lot. Right now, they are estimating an incredible amount of participation in the event, with 80 different families having treasures to sell.
“I’m proud to be a part of this community. Our store is proud of what we do for our customers. The happier I make customers, the more business they will bring us. We’re not here to get rich. We’re here to make sure people get treated fairly, with honesty and integrity. We believe in transparency.”
This article has been updated to change Mr. Reece’s title at OK Chevy to indicate his job is General Manager, not General Manager-Owner, since first published in the May 11 issue of the Gazette-Tribune, as well as online.
