Things will never be “the same” at Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston, Maine. They probably never again will be “normal,” either — whatever “normal” means. One of two sites (the other being the nearby Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant) of the 10th-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history last Oct. 25 remained closed for more than six months.
As one might imagine, it took a while for owners Justin and Samantha Juray to process what had happened at the bowling center they’d purchased barely two years earlier. The first thing they had to do was decide that they wanted to reopen — something that the owner of Schemengees has said she won’t do. Once that decision was made, the couple got to work on refurbishing the facility to erase as many memories as possible of the night that had left 18 people dead.
The Jurays had emptied their savings account to purchase the center, but surviving a mass shooting and then dealing its aftermath had not been part of the business plan. Justin, in particular, found it difficult to even walk inside the center. But within several weeks of the shooting, the couple decided to keep the business going — for themselves, but primarily for the community. Reopening meant that the venue would be a place where people could “still make memories,” as Samantha put it. The kind of memories that bowling normally provides.
The Jurays would have liked to have moved faster, but their insurance was slow to kick in. Fortunately, their landlord, with whom they’d signed a 10-year lease, said he’d support their decision, no matter what it was — including the option to simply walk away without penalty. When they decided they wanted to reopen, the landlord told them to order new floors and offered to front the money for the cost.
The damage — beyond the loss of human life — that the shooter caused was extensive. In addition to new floors, the center needed new carpet, new paint and a new reception counter. The center is a New England-style “split house,” with six candlepin lanes and 22 tenpin lanes, and three of the tenpin lanes’ pinsetting machines had been hit with bullets. Ultimately, the bowling community stepped up to provide a new scoring system, as well as new gutters, bumpers and other capital equipment.
As May approached, the Jurays were ready to reopen. They began by welcoming relatives of some of the people who had lost their lives. Then came a soft reopening with members of the Thursday night league that had been bowling when the shooter entered the building.
Finally, on May 3, it was time for the official grand reopening — an event filled with speeches (including one by Maine Governor Janet Mills), a ribbon cutting, food trucks, and lots of hugs and tears.
A report on the reopening — including comments from Governor Mills — will appear in the June issue of BCM.
Bowling Center Management Online 
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