But this year, the Lehigh cafe got a new tenant.

Roger Smith has lived in Lehigh for 82 years and can remember when customers would pack into the Lehigh Valley Cafe for taco night — so full, you might not find a seat.

On Feb. 26, 2018, he bought the cafe, which had been sitting empty, and began the big job of fixing it up.

“Because we need a restaurant in town, mainly,” Smith said. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to see it torn down. And I didn’t want to see it just completely fall apart.”

-Messenger file photo by Joe Sutter
Randy Russell, owner of the Lucky Pig, poses with Doug Johnson and Reggie Kopecky with the Farnhamville Betterment Committee in front of the Lucky Pig shortly before opening in March 2018. The committee has been remodeling for the past two years.

Smith and Bill Hatch worked throughout the year, and now have something to show for it.

“We have just a bit of electrical left to do, and then we need to get it inspected,” Smith said. “We got the new hood, we got all the new equipment in it. Everything is up to date. New windows at north end of the building. New lights in the kitchen.

“Everything is looking pretty good.”

Smith also got the walk-in cooler working again. It needed a new compressor and two new motors in the fans, for about $2,500. Plus, there was a lot of cleaning and painting to do.

Smith and Hatch still do construction work; they’re not what you’d call retired.

-Messenger file photo by Joe Sutter
Randy Russell, left, Doug Johnson and Reggie Kopecky work in the nearly-finished Lucky Pig in Farnhamville in March 2018. The Betterment Committee has done remodeling over the last two years, adding the aluminized walls; the tables and chairs are all new, as are the furnace and kitchen equipment.

“Tired? Yes we’re tired,” Hatch said. “Re? No.”

Smith never wanted to run it himself — and fortunately he’s found enthusiastic people willing to take on the challenge.

“It’s going to be called ‘Two Crazy Ladies on Main.’ It’s a woman and her daughter-in-law,” he said. “Gabriel Farris and Shawn Grossnickle.”

The plan is to open by the first of March, Smith said.

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Farnhamville also has enjoyed the opening of a new eatery in 2018.

Thanks to lots of community work, the Lucky Pig opened in what used to be Tony’s Steakhouse. It’s run by Randy Russell, owner of the Lucky Pig in Ogden.

The FBI — that’s Farnhamville Betterment Inc. — was formed 19 years ago to save the building from staying empty. At that time it had been a grocery store, and the betterment group remodeled it into a restaurant.

Over the past couple years, after Tony’s went out of business, the FBI did it again.

“Doug and Reggie and the rest of the betterment committee have done a great job of fixing this up,” Russell said when work was ongoing to fix up the establishment. “They put a lot of time and effort into this. I want to give them credit.”

“Everybody in the area is excited for him to come to town. He runs a great restaurant in Ogden,” said Doug Johnson, FBI president.

Johnson said the volunteers spent more than four months working in the building last winter, and have been at it since November this winter, plus a little bit in the summer.

The committee also installed a new furnace and new, better ventilation for the restaurant, he said.

Johnson is grateful for the people of the community, who have stepped up and donated enough to cover most of the expenses of refurbishing and purchasing new equipment.

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Dayton is in the process of running a new sewer system out to Oak Park and the golf course, according to City Clerk Sara Pieper.

“It’s been a couple years in the works,” Pieper said. “We had septic tanks for the park and the golf course, and it was time to switch them out or find something new.”

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In Otho, a major storm sewer project is being planned for this spring.

“We’re going to put in a large cross-section of new storm sewer lines,” Glenda Rasmussen, Otho city clerk, said.

It’s going to help alleviate issues with infiltration into the sewer system.

“It’ll take a load off of that,” she said. “Hopefully, it’ll stop water from getting into basements in heavy rains.”

Messenger staff writer Peter Kaspari contributed to this report.