By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

NORWAY – Ruby Vaughn is in the business of making things last, of stretching the life of goods from one owner to the next.

And it’s a vocation that also has been passed down through her family. She said her grandfather, who ran the dump in the 1960s, used to set aside still-good items for others. And she said with a little smile that her 10-year-old granddaughter Ruby Ann has vowed to continue the tradition.

Vaughn runs Ruby’s Gold Mine, a little building filled with people’s unwanted household items, which are dropped off for someone else who might find them useful.

“There’s a lot of people in this area and out of this area,” she said Wednesday morning, standing among stacked tea cups, microwaves, and piles of board games. “They just really need to get things they can’t afford in a store.”

But because everything is unpriced and the Gold Mine works on a system of voluntary donations placed in a small ceramic pig jug, finances can sometimes be tight.

Recently, Norway-Paris Solid Waste Corp. reminded the Gold Mine that the transfer station needed to be reimbursed for $465 by Dec. 29 to cover an insurance bill. At that point, the Gold Mine only had $75.04 in its account, according to Henry Male, secretary of the board.

But after Male wrote a letter to the editor asking for help, about $525 came in, according to Art Hill, treasurer for the nonprofit.

Also, the board approached Norway and Paris town officials with a request for $200 from each town to help pay their liability insurance bill.

Norway selectmen said yes and Paris referred the request to the budget committee, according to local officials.

Vaughn said the costs were high last year because the building had to be constructed and materials were expensive. In total, the Gold Mine cost almost $2,000 to make, Male said. Now that it is practically done, Vaughn said paying the insurance bill – which last year was $615 – will be easier.

“I know this will be a self-supporting building this year because of people’s support and donations,” Vaughn said. The building still needs insulating, but costs are low because there is no electricity. It is warmed by a small kerosene heater.

Vaughn said between 50 and 75 people can stop by the place on a normal weekend.

Vaughn, 44, lives in West Paris and works as an unloader at Wal-Mart. Previously she worked at the transfer station for nine years, she said.

She opens Ruby’s Gold Mine from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to noon Sundays, sometimes with the help of volunteers, like one of her four children or six grandchildren.

The Gold Mine accepts most anything if it works and doesn’t contain freon or is potentially combustible, Vaughn said. But the place is packed with electronic goods, like DVD players and stereos, and many stuffed animals, books, fans, pictures – even a pinkish cowboy hat lined with feathers sits waiting for someone with particular fashion sense.

Since the building went up last November, Vaughn said the Gold Mine has helped 13 families who were burned out of their homes. And she estimates that between 10 and 12 tons of goods have been saved from the trash stream.

“You stand here and listen,” she said about visitors who say, “My aunt Judy is really going to like this.”