Young adults find ways not to move away

Assistant to the owner of a luxury guest ranch. Co-manager of a small town deli. Nail technician.

These are the jobs held by a few Lincoln County residents under the age of 25 who, not wanting to move away to find work, have found ways to make a living where they grew up — an area known to be a difficult place to find a job. While there is plenty of news about an economic downturn and the demise of Lincoln County’s natural resource industries, The Western News wanted to highlight young people who have found creative ways to earn a living and seek satisfaction in their lives against the odds. We will periodically publish an update on these and other young people and the issues they face living in Lincoln County.

“It’s hard,” said 19-year-old nail technician Brenna Garrison of Troy. “I don’t make enough to be able to live on my own. I really want to move out with my boyfriend, we’ve been together five years, but we can’t afford to buy anything yet.”

Garrison was able to avoid student loans by using a small amount of scholarship money from local sources to go to Kalispell and take a nail technician course. She is now building her client base and hopes to be able to work out of Troy, where she lives with her parents in the house she grew up in.

Despite signs pointing to a rough ride for young people who settle in Lincoln County ­— Johnette Watkins, manager at Kootenai Job Services in Libby, said 127 of 1,100 people currently registered with the organization are age 25 or under — 25-year-old Levi Neubauer sees a lot of potential in his hometown of Libby and the surrounding area. He works at McGinnis Meadows Cattle and Guest Ranch, 40 miles southeast of Libby. Specializing in natural horsemanship, the ranch hosts 15-20 guests a week from around the world year round, who come to horse ride, hike and cross country ski in the pristine mountains around the ranch.

“The only difference between us and the Flathead area is an airport (and) no crowds,” Neubauer said. “We’ve got acres of untouched wilderness that people don’t have to wait in line to see or get a parking pass to experience.”

Having spent time at college in Missoula and working in Texas oilfields, Neubauer acknowledges that jobs opportunities in Lincoln County can be scarce, but in his case it’s a sacrifice he made in exchange for lifestyle.

“I’d like to work in human resources, which is what I did in Texas, but there just aren’t those jobs here,” he said. “I’d rather make less money, because money is not why I’m here. I’m here to live the life I want and be near my family.”

Although Garrison has relatives, including a sister, who live in Nevada, a state where “there’s mining still, and people make good money,” she is certain of her decision to establish a life in Troy.

“My boyfriend is a real Troy boy, he’s a logger and he loves it, so I can’t see us moving away,” she said.

Neubauer said “about a third of my (2010 graduating) class left straight out of school to North Dakota, which was booming.”

The boom and bust cycle is one many Lincoln County families have adapted to, but Neubauer said “there are so many split families, even now [after the recent boom], dads working away and single moms.”

Both Garrison and Neubauer acknowledge that financial stability in Lincoln County currently comes with government jobs, such as those in education, forest management or in private sectors that are necessary no matter what the economy is doing, like those in health care.

Garrison’s boyfriend’s mom works for the Forest Service, and Neubauer said “the government may have done us wrong on asbestos, but the high paying jobs are often in the public sector now.”

In the absence of one of those jobs, finances prevent Garrison from meeting some of her goals: to upgrade her “old, scary” car, a vehicle she’s had since she first learned to drive, and to buy a house with her boyfriend so she can move out of her family home.

Cynthia Garrison, 21, a distant relative of Brenna, manages Kootenai Cupboard in Troy. At the end of a recent shift, as she folded her small frame into a chair in the customer seating section of the popular sandwich store and deli, her exhaustion was apparent.

“I started this morning at 6 a.m.,” she said well after 5 p.m. Garrison also works as the Troy farmer’s market assistant on Fridays throughout the market season, and occasionally works as a housecleaner and bartender as well.

“What I’ve seen is that reputation is everything in a small town,” Garrison said. “I’ve got a reputation as a motivated person and so I get a lot of job offers. When I stopped working at Stein’s market last year, I was offered three other jobs.”

Being young and relatively unattached — Cynthia Garrison has a boyfriend who works in Wyoming as a truck driver for a mine -- makes Garrison a good bet for employers to fill shifts outside of office hours or on weekends.

Although they had plans to buy a house around Troy, Garrison and her boyfriend are now waiting because they found themselves priced out of the market. In the meantime, she plans to remodel a trailer to live in.

“I wouldn’t move away,” said Garrison, who was raised by her dad in Troy. “Family means more to me than money.”

Neubauer is also sure of his love for Libby and treasures being around his family, which he joins every Sunday for dinner.

“I felt a draw the whole time I was away (in Missoula and Texas),” Neubauer said. “Family was the reason to come back … but at the heart of it, being in the mountains and wilderness is what keeps me here.”

Yet the strong draw of family, home and homeland don’t completely quell the essence of young adulthood: questioning potential and hungering for new experiences.

“I ask myself all the time, ‘do I invest in myself here, or do I start somewhere else?’” Neubauer said. “I know there are opportunities out there … I want to find out what those opportunities are, find a light.”