Blue Crystal Stays In Town

WAITSBURG - Cardi­nals T-shirts, Touchet Valley farm truck decals, Kison Court sports banners, Dayton shop signs, Waitsburg High Letterman jackets. The list of items produced by Blue Crystal Screenprint­ing

Signs on Willard could go on and on. Chances are they all look familiar. They're icons of our everyday lives and our every-weekend sports. In the 16 years since it was founded, Waitsburg entre­preneur Elizabeth Cole has supplied the Touchet Valley and many clients in Walla Walla with athletic, academic and commercial logos and symbols.

But that changed ear­lier this month when anoth­Local er Waitsburg entrepreneur, Karen Mohney, took over the well-established company in a deal that will keep it right here in town. "I'm excited," Cole said. "How often in a small town in this economy can you turn around and sell a business and keep it local? It was time. When Karen walked through the door, it was confirmation that it was time."

This weekend, Mohney moved the screen-printing machines, vinyl cutter, con­veyor dryer, heat-transfer device and all other equip­ment, supplies and inventory from the Coles' building on Willard to the old EZ Way fa­cility

next to AgLink's Cenex station on Preston. She hopes to be up and running again this week.

"She (Cole) was taking orders right up to the time of the move," Mohney said. As much as Cole was ready to let go of a busi­ness she ran while her kids were growing up, Mohney was ready to take on a new venture.

Last month, Mohney and her mother, Meredith Huwe, closed down EZ Way, the aerial marking flag company Huwe's late husband Pete started more than three de­cades

ago. Mohney had been doing catering and managing her family's storage units, but the end of EZ Way left a void and raised the question about the use of its building on Preston.

"I was wondering what I was going to do," Mohney said. "I was looking for something that could give me some freedom and be a chal­lenge at the same time." The answer came when a friend who attended a golf tournament had heard that prize winners getting gift certificatesfrom Blue Crys­tal better hurry and get their items because the business was said to close soon. Mohney approached Cole, whose enterprise she had long admired, about buying her company the next day. The new owner is no stranger to making signs, which she has done from her home for years. She has sup­plied the Days of Real Sport, 4-H, Rainbow Girls and many other local groups with what makes them visible and recognizable. Crystal Blue's vinyl signs orders represent about a quarter of its sales.

"Now I have the profes­sional equipment to do it," Mohney said.

However, screenprinting, which represents the bulk of Blue Crystal's revenues, is an entirely different story, she said. "I don't know the first thing about it."

Cole has agreed to train Mohney on the equipment and introduce her to Blue Crystal's clients. She will re­main with the company as a consultant for the remainder of the year. "I would be terrified without Elizabeth," Mohney said. "From her perspective, it's been her baby and she doesn't want to see it fail." Well, it was almost her baby from infancy. Blue Crystal was founded by Cole's sister-in-law Pam Rethmeyer, who started it with Danny Cole. Cole her­self joined a few months later, and after the others lost interest in the business, she began to run it by herself. Through networking and word of mouth, she steadily built a client base throughout the Touchet Valley and Walla Walla, including Waitsburg High School, Walla Wal­la University and Seneca. Eighty percent of Blue Crys­tal's sales are from returning customers. Ross Hamann helped her with many of the designs. Over the years, Cole also did various community proj­ects with services to the Blue Mountain Girls Softball League, for instance, and through gym banner projects with former seniors Stepha­nie

Hoilman (WHS) and Tressa Robins (DHS).

When the Cardinals foot­ball team needed names on the jerseys and Coach Jeff Bartlow didn't have that in his budget, Cole would do them at no charge. "It was a way to give back when I could," she said. Mohney now hopes to build on that foundation by adding customers from among her own extensive contacts in and beyond the valley. She already has inter­est from a dog trials organi­zation on Vashon Island and a day care in Boise.

"It's a very sound busi­ness," said Mohney, who had no appetite for "reinventing the wheel."

As for Cole, who was helping Mohney move the company's equipment on her 51st birthday, she hasn't decided what's next.

She does know that being a mother, which always came first despite the demands of the business, is as important as ever to her. Nineteen-year-old Karen and 22-year-old Trey grew up around cot­ton

and vinyl, helping Cole when they could. Now Karen is having a baby and Cole wants to be there for her daughter and her first grand­daughter. Yet letting go of her other "baby" wasn't without some nostalgia. "The day we signed the papers was a hard day," Cole said. "I had such a heart con­nection with Blue Crystal."