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Dru and Brooke Van Ausdle beam with pride in the recently refurbished front office of Van Ausdle Tire, which officially opened July 6 in the former J-Har Logging building in Dayton.
After about four months of planning and hard work, business finally got rolling at Van Ausdle Tire, recently started here by Dru and Brooke (Hoon) Van Ausdle. The couple plan a full-service car, truck and large equipment service center at their location on the west outskirts of Dayton.
DAYTON–Family connections and family roots played a big part in Dru and Brooke Van Ausdle "coming home" to the southeastern corner of Washington, the location of Dayton's newest business, Van Ausdle Tires.
The new tire store is at the location formerly occupied by Jerry Harshman's J-Har Logging on the west end of town, and years ago its Allis Chalmers orange façade started as Harvester Supply, Inc., at 36713 Highway 12. It will be open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
What was in that building is the family connection from the past: Brooke's father, Terry Hoon of Dayton, was previously employed by Harvester Supply and Harshman, and when news of the Van Ausdle's changed circumstances reached the Terry's and Denise's household earlier this year, he picked up the phone.
Harshman was ready to sell the property and the rest, as they say, is history.
"It was perfect timing for us," said Brooke, a 2006 graduate of Dayton High School, this week. "We're tickled to have the opportunity to be here."
The Van Ausdles had been living in Davenport, Wash., where Dru, who graduated from Pomeroy High School in 2004, was employed by the Les Schwab Tire Co. The plan was for the Van Ausdles to succeed the owner of that store, but, being a franchisee-owned business, the Schwab company held the right of first refusal, and they exercised it.
The sale of the property and establishment of the new business "snowballed from there," Brooke says.
"We could have stayed in Davenport but this opportunity came up and we jumped on it," she added.
Since March, the couple have been renovating, cleaning and reorganizing the property while splitting time between Dayton and Davenport, where their home was on the market and their daughter Ava, 7, was finishing the school year. They have a son, Layton, age 4.
After getting equipped and ready to open the doors, the final hurdle was to get credit card machines, and Tuesday, July 6 was their first official day of business.
First customer? Dru's mother Sue Van Ausdle, of course. Dru's parents are Joe and Sue Van Ausdle of Pomeroy.
The store will offer service and sales for cars and light trucks to begin with. As they build and grow, they plan to add larger truck and ag equipment tire service and sales, depending on when they acquire the vehicles and equipment to do that work. Eventually alignment service will be added.
"We'll be a full-service tire store when all is said and done," Brooke said.
The couple have been married since 2012 after meeting in 2005 during All Wheels Weekend. Dru graduated from WSU with a degree in Business Management and Operations, and while attending college, began working part time at Les Schwab Tire Co. Brooke holds a degree in Behavioral Science, also from WSU.
After graduating, Van Ausdle started in Les Schwab's management program and transfers to Centralia, Wash., and San Carlos, Calif., followed. While in California, Van Ausdle got word of the opportunity to buy the Schwab franchise in Davenport where he managed the local store for about five years.
