Gary Adams

South Jetty Inn

984 Pacific Drive, Hammond

The South Jetty Inn, located on the main part of Hammond next to the Buoy 9 restaurant, offers nine rooms and a two-bedroom suite. It offers wireless Internet access, mini fridges, in-room coffee and microwave and a fire pit and barbecue. The inn is owned and managed by Gary Adams, who says he likes to go to bed by 10 p.m., but the buzzer is always available for latecomers. Reservations can be made by calling (503) 861-2500 or emailing manager@south jettyinn.com

What do you do?

I own and manage … I pretty much run the whole show here at the motel with a little bit of help in the summertime. That entails taking reservations, checking people into their rooms, doing laundry, doing all the upkeep on the motel as far as repairs, paying all the bills, cleaning the rooms. It caters to fisherman and people that are traveling on vacation. We accommodate people overnight, weekly stays, nightlys.

How did you get started doing this?

I started managing the place about 21/2, 3 years ago. The owner passed away, and his daughters offered me a deal to buy it. Its something new to me, and I just kind of thought heck; Ill just try it out and see how it goes. It was new to me and my wife. Weve been doing it for 21/2 years now, and thats how we got into this, but the motel business is definitely new to me. (Before this, I was) running heavy equipment out of Colorado. I have family out here. My mom lives out here. We moved; we relocated and found jobs here and got into this.

What is the volume of your business?

Its really hit-or-miss. In wintertime, we try to stock up with weekly customers as much as we can try to find local job sites and workers that will come in here and stay weekly or even monthly. Summertime is good June, July and August, September. We get full in July and August; were pretty much booked up. And thats pretty much our bread and butter, is the fishing season here. Then after September, it starts to slow down, so we go back to our weeklies again. But its definitely hit-and-miss. This years taken a fall from last year by the looks of things. Every month its been a little bit less. I dont know if thats because of the restrictions on fishing, but most of our customers in the summers are related to fishing.

How does the economy affect your business?

I havent been here since 2007, but I have read the past tax statements. The economy taking a dive has definitely changed this place. When I was younger, I worked over here (in Hammond) about 10 years ago with my aunt and uncle, helping them manage a business. Id say weve lost about 75 percent of the tourism coming here for the fishing season in the last 10 years. Its been a dramatic change. Ive notice people who used to come down from Portland theyd come here three, four times a year to go fishing. And now theyve cut that down to maybe one trip a year. Its affected us, because now were having to try to strike out in different directions, to try and get the people that are coming to the beach and the other kind of people.

Whats it like doing business in Hammond?

Thats something Ive been trying to set up this year, is trying to get people to know where were at. A lot of people dont know where Hammonds at. We have people that come from Portland (U.S. Highway) 26 they come down. They hit Seaside, Warrenton maybe, but some of them dont even get past Fort Stevens. We get customers all the time in here going We didnt even know this town was here. Weve been coming here for 10 years; wish we would have known theres a motel right here.”