Driver arrested on DUII after early-AM crash into NW Bend building, forcing two new businesses to close for repairs
BEND, Ore, (KTVZ) – Two newly opened businesses in northwest Bend are having to close down for now and pick up the pieces after a suspected drunk driver rammed into their building early Wednesday morning.
The driver was arrested on suspicion of DUII after the 3:30 a.m. crash into the structure at the corner of Galveston Avenue and Federal Street police said. No staff or customers were in the building at the time of the crash and the driver was uninjured.
“Unanticipated renovations” is the fairly jovial way Bonta Gelato described the reason their new location has to close for awhile.
“Last night, somebody who shouldn’t have gotten behind the wheel drove through the wall of our Galveston Avenue location,” the business’s Instagram post said. “Most importantly, nobody was hurt.”
They added, ”We hope to be slinging scoops on Galveston again real soon, but until then, we look forward to serving you at our downtown Bend location and at our Eastside Tasting Room.”
The business said they will try to keep all the workers by giving them hours at the other locations.
Bonta General Manager Peter Curran said, “The Wilson Avenue location, we do have our downtown location. We're in the process of opening a Redmond location. And then we do have events that are going on, so we're going to obviously try to rehouse as many hours as we can in those other locations.”
Bonta also noted in their IG post that their pints and quarts can be purchased on DoorDash and in grocers’ frozen aisle.
In one last parenthetical thought, they added, “(We like beer as anybody who lives in Bend. Please don’t drink and drive.)”
The other business in the building is the newly opened Iris & Stout, which sells a variety of goods, from jewelry and clothing to décor. It has no other locations to move to and lost a bit of inventory in the crash. With only an online store to sell its goods for now, it must figure out how to stay afloat.
“It’s a family business,” co-owner Chelsea Graff said. “I am still working as a nurse at the hospital, and here about five days a week, so it definitely impacts the business.”
Both store owners said they were glad no one was hurt in the crash.
There are also small residential units above the shops that were disturbed when the crash , but Bend Fire officials said the building is safe for residents to say in them.
Property managers were on scene early Wednesday, working with a disaster repair company, ServPro of Bend, to board up and secure the structure and assess the damage.
