CANUTE, Okla. (KFOR) – If you need a tire patched or your oil changed, there isn’t a better man to ask around here than Ricky Snowder.

He’s been in business on this spot for close to 40 years, across the street before that, and always busy.

“What do you like best about this job,” asks a visitor?

“Everything,” he replies.

Ricky was much too busy to worry much about the dust blowing inside this old Phillips 66 station, and certainly too busy to think about painting the outside of his building.

“I stay so busy,” he explains, “I don’t have time to do a whole lot of cleaning.”

“The building needed some TLC,” says an old friend Paula McCree.

So one, bright day, she dropped by to see Ricky about a new idea she’d heard about.

The Keep Oklahoma Beautiful organization had a project called Paint Oklahoma Beautiful.

She helped Ricky apply for the program that helps small communities beautify old structures.

“We took pictures. We filled out applications,” she recalls.

Both of them were quite pleased to be one of a handful selected from across the state.

Volunteer crews pressure washed and scraped, then painted over the old, chipped maroon on the cinder block walls.

Last week Ricky’s brother came over to paint the trim and this old business suddenly looked brand new.

Snowder insists, “I was going to eventually paint anyway, but this just fell right into my lap. It was an awesome deal.”

He’d still like to paint his name on the side.

Snowder would like to get around to dusting off his antique bottle collection, and, maybe straighten the pictures in his office.

All that might have to wait till he’s not so busy serving his customers and answering his phone.

But his old shop is new again on the outside, pretty as can be, and still part of the foundation that keeps this town going.

“I’m tickled to death,” he smiles.

You can lean more information on Keep Oklahoma Beautiful or the Paint Oklahoma Beautiful program via their website.