ELGIN — Professional glass worker and installer Jason Lovell is the sole proprietor of Eastern Oregon Glass Shop, which opened recently in the former White Horse Café, 71005 Highway 82.

“I bought the property in March and set up business there,” Lovell said. “I have well over 20 years of experience in the glass business and glazier skills.”

The new glass shop is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday noon to 2 p.m. “We also do emergency 24 hours service,” Lovell said. The business phone is 623-301-3940.

The former cafe building is undergoing extensive remodeling, removing restaurant furnishings and equipment to make space for displays and glass storage. Outside, Lovell painted over the cafe sign and put up his own business sign.

“I really haven’t done much advertising besides my building signs and what’s on my trailer, but from that alone the phone started blowing up with calls,” Lovell said. “I’m super-busy right now.”

Lovell is a native of Joseph in Wallowa County but now lives in Island City. He said he learned his work ethic from his grandfather, who owned the Lostine Tavern, but his introduction to glazier work began in the mid-1990s.

His education in this trade started in 1994, when Lovell went through an apprenticeship at Marv’s Glass Shop in Milton-Freewater for four years. Following that, in 1998, he attended Portland Door School in Portland to get certified in automatic doors and storefronts. He also assisted his father, Sam Lovell, in operating Lovell’s Glass Shop in Milton-Freewater for 10 years, 1999-2009.

“I installed all the new doors and storefronts at the Walla Walla airport,” Lovell said. “I also fixed all the doors at Safeway and Albertson’s. I’m the guy you see on the ladder fixing their doors.”

When the family business closed, Lovell moved in 2011 to La Grande, where he worked for Legacy Ford for 13 years, becoming their top salesman. On the side, he still was doing some glass work and installing fancy shower doors for contractors such as Scott Doren of Doren Tile and Stone in La Grande.

“I’ve known Jason Lovell for several years,” Doren said. “He is timely and hardworking, and his prices are reasonable. His product and installations always look great.”

Lovell and his wife, Mykel Lovell, a hair designer for 24 years, co-owned two hair salons in La Grande, the Eclipse and after selling that, they owned the Cat’s Meow. No strangers to the service industry, Lovell said the public connections he has made during the past years as a businessperson give him the recognition he seeks in his new glass shop business.

Now that he has established his glass shop in Elgin, he has hit the ground running and serves a wide territory encompassing Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Baker and Malheur counties.

The demand in these counties for his services have given him a solid niche in the glazier market.

“There are only a couple glass shops around now, one in La Grande and one in Milton-Freewater,” Lovell said. “Other shops have closed, one in Pendleton, another in Joseph. When the High Valley Glass Shop in Joseph closed, the owner called me up and gave me all his tools and supplies, thousands of dollars’ worth.”

Grateful, Lovell did pay him something for the equipment because he does not like to take things for free from people so generous, he said. It was a great boost to his business startup.

Among his main services, Lovell works on commercial store fronts and door repairs, screens and screen repairs, vinyl windows, shower doors, cab tractor glass, residential glass windows and shower doors, sliding glass patio door repairs and installation, screen doors and installation and glass glazier.

“I will work hard for you and do the job to 100 percent satisfaction,” Lovell said. “I welcome your calls and will give you a free estimate, good for 90 days.”