N.E.W. Family Life Services Looks to Expand

A health center could replace a bar in Colville’s business district.

“We are exploring the option of putting a women’s health clinic in,” said Vonnie [CQ] McCoy, director of N.E.W. Family Life Services. “We want to do women’s body awareness classes, maybe some STD and STI testing.”

N.E.W Family Life has floor plans and has talked with city officials, who recommended that an engineer be consulted to ensure the building at 198 E. 2^nd Ave. has sufficient structural integrity, McCoy said.

“We are currently talking to a couple of contractors, and we’re waiting for the bids,” McCoy said. “We’re just starting out, I would say.”

Colville Mayor Jack Smith said that he wasn’t aware of N.E.W. Family Life’s plans.

The Christian-based center that aims to help new and expectant mothers would displace Cahoots, which has been serving drinks since 2019. In the short term, McCoy said, N.E.W. Family Life plans to move existing operations from its building at 144 W. 5^th Ave. to space now occupied by the bar, which holds a three-year lease that expires on Jan. 1, 2027.

Mary Kay, Cahoots owner, said a New Year’s Eve party with a 1920s flapper theme will mark her bar’s closing. She said she also held a flapper-themed party when she first opened Cahoots.

“I’m going to ugly cry,” Kay told a patron last week as he paid his tab and asked about the bar closing.

N.E.W. Family Life extended Kay’s lease when the agency bought the building in 2023 for $585,000, according to McCoy and Stevens County property records. The county has set the market value at $561,866.

“I’ve been looking for about a year-and-a-half for a place to move Cahoots to,” Kay said. “There’s nothing affordable.”

The space occupied by Cahoots is nearly three times bigger than space in the building where N.E.W. Family Life offers classes on such subjects as breastfeeding and immunizations while providing car seats, clothing, cribs and other necessities to clients, according to McCoy and the agency’s website. N.E.W. Family Life helped 128 clients last year, McCoy said, adding that more than 90% were women.

“We’re going to gain a lot of space,” McCoy said. “That’s one of the reasons we bought the building.” N.E.W Family Life plans to keep its 5^th Avenue building and perhaps use it for storage when operations move, she said. The agency doesn’t plan on closing New Oak Street Market, a café and retail store that it runs in the same building where Cahoots does business.

N.E.W. Family Life doesn’t have a construction timeline, nor has the agency yet applied for building permits. Money should not be a problem, McCoy said.

“I’m very confident that we’ll have enough to make it a reality,” she said.