An 80-hour week is child’s play

EPHRATA – For Kim Meaney Randolph of Ephrata, an 80-hour work week is normal, but only because she loves what she is doing.

Randolph, a real estate agent with Kellar-Williams, has a very outgoing personality and has a passion for the Basin.

Her great-grandfather, Fred Schmoe, homesteaded in the Quincy basin in the 1890s. Back in those days, there wasn't irrigation water to help grow crops, so the family was dependent on scarce rain and well water to grow crops.

“Paul Schmoe, my grandfather, went to work for the (Washington) State Patrol and was assigned to the bustling towns surrounding the building of Grand Coulee Dam in the 1930s,” she said. “He was the only law enforcement in that part of the county for a time.”

Her dad went on to join the State Patrol too.

Randolph too joined WSP, working around the state before moving to Quincy. While her then-husband Steve, also with WSP, worked out of Wenatchee, she worked out of Moses Lake.

In 1995, Randolph needed a career change and opened a bookstore in Ephrata.

“I borrowed some money from my grandmother to purchase a building, and if the business failed, I could resell the building,” she said.

Five years later she rented a much larger building in town, the former Sav-Mor/Potter Drug location, along Basin Street. That location was open until 2010 when her dad became ill and she sold the business. After he passed away, she embarked on a career in real estate.

Buying and selling houses wasn't anything new to Randolph. She and her husband lived in 13 houses over 7 years, before finally settling in Quincy.

“I was finally able to unpack,” she said.

Randolph is on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Lower Grand Coulee. The Friends sponsor fifth graders in Soap Lake with an opportunity to get involved in the arts.

She said “They get a chance to enjoy the beauty of our local area and come to respect our outdoor public art spaces.”

Randolph bought a historic building in Ephrata which formerly housed a grocery store, along with many other businesses over the years. She has since remodeled the interior to her liking.

She said she continues to love real estate in the Basin and her passion for the community paid off during a recent awards banquet in Kennewick.

“I sat at a table with a bunch of much younger agents, hoping I might learn some new techniques for selling,” she said. “I didn't get the memo on dress code, having come from a day showing off properties, so I was under-dressed for the banquet. The kids all snubbed me as some old white lady.”

But the tables turned when the real estate awards started to get passed out that night.

“I showed them all up by taking all of the sales awards that evening and bringing all the plaques back to the table,” she said.

Another agent at the event bet her a new Rolex watch that he could outsell her for 2022. At the beginning of 2023, she called the main office to get the official numbers. She won.

“I now send him ads for what I would like for my new Rolex every week, just to remind him,” she said with a laugh.

Dan Bolyard is a freelance writer and an author of books that serve his passion for history and the Columbia Basin Community.