Sponsored by five local businesses to mark five years since fire

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

Long after buckets of sunflowers were distributed along Main Street in Phoenix for the fifth anniversary of the Almeda Fire, a permanent metal sunflower installation will remain standing as a permanent reminder of the community’s resilience.

The metal installation, installed in front of The Oregon Cheese Cave on Sept. 7, was made by Phoenix Metal Craft LLC, and was sponsored by each of the five tenants along Main Street, including the cheese shop. At the base of each metal sunflower is a metal-crafted coffee cup, flower, butterfly, flame, and cheese slice to represent the shops and to mark the fifth anniversary. 

The following businesses are also represented in the installation:

• Phoenix Dripp Cafe
• Pollinator Project Rogue Valley 
• Bee Sweet Blooms
• Firebrand Resiliency Collective

The art installation is the “brainchild” of Mélodie Picard, owner of The Cheese Cave, and served as a selfie station for the city’s first 2nd Friday Art Walk on Friday.

“This is a sign of hope that we’ve made it five years,” Picard said, of the installation, noting the businesses are looking ahead to the next five years.

“It’s for the people to enjoy, it’s to mark the (fifth anniversary) — I still need to make a plaque,” she added.

A native of Normandy, Picard moved to Southern California from Le Havre, France, in 1999 and to Southern Oregon in 2013 and opened the Phoenix cheese shop in 2018.

About a year ago, Picard said meeting a metal artist during the past year helped spur the idea for the project.

“It fit right in,” she said of the installation.

“I had a picture in my mind and he (the artist) actually had the same picture.”

Valerie Schank, owner of Phoenix Dripp Cafe, opened inside The Oregon Cheese Cave earlier this year.

Schank, who came to southern Oregon in 2015 from Brooklyn, New York, expressed excitement to have her cafe be part of the project.

“It was such a great idea, and I was like, obviously I can’t imagine any of us not wanting to do it,” Schank said. 

“It’s a nice reminder,” she added. “It’s flowers showing, you know, the growth of the space, not the destruction.”

Next door, Bee Sweet Blooms owner Deanna Mulaskey arranged flowers and shared her perspective, too.

Mulaskey said the sunflower has been a symbol of hope for the community since the fire.

“As soon as I knew it was happening, I was, like, ‘Hell yeah,’” Mulaskey said. “This is very cool and it’s like a permanent structure and the sunflower’s obviously super meaningful to the whole community.”

“The fact that it won’t matter the season, they’re going to be there and I think they look very realistic, too.”

Development positive since the Almeda Fire, but rising inflation hard for some businesses

Beyond the art installation, Picard noted that much has changed for the business community since the fire, including the resurgence of a Phoenix Chamber of Commerce that has become much more established in the last three years.

“We had (a chamber of commerce) but it wasn’t very effective,” Picard said. “It died with COVID, and this one came out of that.”

Despite development gains made in the community since the fire, she acknowledged that the current economic climate provides challenges, too.

Picard shared concerns for her shop moving forward, even as she plans to to remain open, “flying by the seat of (her) pants.”

With two years left on her lease, Picard said she can’t afford to break it.

“My sales are down 15%,” Picard said, noting inflation is to blame. 

“And I am not keeping up with my bills,” Picard added.

“The tariffs are making it worse to get product to sell, but the inflation is very real and has been going on.”

“Small businesses are struggling. We’re trying to keep up because what else are we going to do? … We want to sell stuff to the people.

“It’s becoming harder and harder, people’s budgets are getting tighter and tighter and they’re not buying as much.”

“Right now, we’re just keeping up,” she added. 

“That is not what the American Way is supposed to be, this is not what I signed up for when I moved to this country, or when I became an American (in 2016).”

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.

Sept. 12: Updated to correct spelling of Mélodie Picard’s name.