The 9,000-square-foot Pendleton Grain Growers retail store in Athena since the company sold off some of its assets to United Grain Corporation. The loss of the store hit the tiny community hard and residents are working to find a solution.

Eleven Athena and Weston residents promised Tuesday night to put their money where their heart is — their community.

They each pledged $1,000 to help buy the former Pendleton Grain Growers general store on Athena’s Main Street. The 9,000 square-foot building has been empty since PGG closed stores in August 2014, a hard kick to the town of about 1,100 that also is fighting the loss of its only bank branch.

PGG rejected one offer to buy the building, then failed to sell it at auction. Now locals are shouldering an effort to buy the building to give it and their community new life. To accomplish the task, they aim to raise $50,000.

Athena Mayor John Shafer was among the 11. He said this is about saving his community, not making money.

“There’s a lot of buzz,” he said. “The people don’t want storefronts empty on downtown Main Street.”

Elizabeth McIntyre with the Develop Athena Downtown Association helped create some of that buzz by sending this message a couple of weeks ago:

“Help us save downtown Athena! Investors wanted to purchase the PGG building and make it a center of commerce: general hardware store, brewery, bakery, school-based industry, farmer’s market, multi-use in Athena.”

Tuesday night’s meeting at the Athena Public Library drew 16 people. They tossed around ideas about how to buy the building, which Umatilla County assessed at $133,320.

Rob McIntyre — Elizabeth’s husband and a driving force in the restoration of the Gem Theatre, also in Athena’s downtown — said the goal was to raise $50,000. Jennifer Spurgeon, city councilor in next-door Weston, suggested 50 people could each contribute $1,000. If each person at the meeting convinced three others to do the same, she said they should be able come up with funds in short order.

“Call it an investment in the town,” said McIntyre.

At the meeting, 11 people pledged $1,000.

The city of Athena was not looking to buy the old store, Shafer said, so he liked the idea of citizens leading the effort. He said he hopes the positive vibe continues at the next meeting about the PGG building, which is Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Weston Public Library, 108 E. Main St., Weston.

Athena resident and political activist Larry Nye said during the meeting that the building could be attractive to small businesses that don’t use much water and need a downtown location.

Together with other efforts, such as the restoration of the Gem Theatre and the city library, Nye said Athena has the ability to host small conventions.

The closure of the town’s only bank, however, casts a shadow over Athena.

The board of the Bank of Eastern Oregon did discuss opening a branch to replace the outgoing U.S. Bank branch. But Gary Propheter, chief operations officer at Bank of Eastern Oregon, said U.S. Bank will not sell its accounts, and that makes starting a branch from scratch much more difficult.

Shafer and state Sen. Bill Hansell (R-Athena) wrote letters opposing the closure to the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks. Hansell said his Senate office in Salem received the response last week.

The Comptroller cannot prevent a bank from closing a branch, according to a copy of the letter, which Hansell’s staff provided. The agency, though, forwarded Hansell’s concerns to its community affairs department, which could hold a meeting to “explore the feasibility of obtaining alternative(s).”

Hansell said he did not take that as an encouraging response.

Still, Athena residents remain positive about revitalizing their town, which also is the goal of the Athena Mainstreet Association. Board member April Vorhauer-Flatt said the organization operates under the guidance of Oregon Main Street, the state program that works with communities to help breathe new life into historic downtowns.

One of Athena Mainstreet’s first projects was decorating the downtown with planters of flowers. The splashes of color made a real difference, she said, after the city removed many downtown trees.

Vorhauer-Flatt said this year Athena Mainstreet coordinated a downtown cleanup and now is working on getting a mural onto an outside wall of the Athena Grocery. She said Athena graphic designer Amy Rogers is leading the project and now is looking for an artists or group of artists to help with the effort. The group also is working on Christmas lighting for downtown.

She said the work is shared between “young people wanting to get involved and community volunteers who have been doing things forever.”