MELANIE HARVEY

Wallowa County resident

Melanie Harvey, 39, of Enterprise, graduated from Baldwin High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1997. She’d started out in Wheeling, W.V. She was the oldest of four siblings, and her dad was a social servvices worker and mom was a wife and mother. The family had bounced around during her high school years from West Virginia to Florida to Pennsylvania.

She joined the military immediately after graduation and served eight and a half years, beginning as an HVAC trainee and training in a variety of fields until she was mustered out as a heavy wheel mechanic.

She met her husband, Justin Harvey, in 2000. He was aa generator mechanic also in the military. The couple married in 2001 and had three children, Joseph, 17; Hunter, 14; and Madyson, 13.

Justin had family in Wallowa County, his mother Marilyn Harvey of Joseph, and they moved to Wallowa County in 2006.

Justin worked for Stoffels Well Drilling, and Melanie began her continuing career at Embers Brew House in Joseph. She also has a second job working for Ed Staub and Sons in Enterprise.

Melanie enjoys volunteering with the VFW.

Q. Why move to Wallowa County?

A. Justin brought me up for a visit, and I liked it. It was nice, it was quiet, and I liked it for raising my kids. You don’t have to worry so much –– they can run around with their friends. I had been a city girl and it wasn’t like that in the city.

Q. What has Wallowa County taught you?

A. If a person wants a job, they’ll find one –– or two. You can find pretty decent work here. Wallowa County is also laid back in comparison to the city. My kids like hiking, hunting and fishing. I never did that before I moved here. Now, I like being out in the outdoors and wilderness.

Q. Can you recall the first book you checked out of the library? And can you recommend a book you’ve read recently?

A. I can’t remember the first. I do remember “Greensleeves” (by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, recently rereleased). I was probably 12 or 13 when I read that. I can’t say why I still remember that; can’t remember the details of the story; but it was about a young girls life (partly set in Portland, Ore.). I haven’t had time to read recently, but I can tell you an author I like: Dean Koontz. I like a mystery.