After two and a half years at the helm, Tania and Josh Corrigan have stepped back with fellow Henty resident Alison Baldock, taking on a five-year lease.

The Corrigans have retained the freehold.

When the town's lone remaining pub was due to shut up shop in 2016, the Corrigans decided they would purchase the Doodle Cooma Arms Hotel despite already running a business, to ensure the town didn't lose its meeting place.

Mr Corrigan said running the local has been extremely rewarding, but had kept their young family busy.

He said it was great another Henty resident had taken up the lease.

"We're extremely relieved," he said.

"We have a building business and a family so it was tough to say the least.

"We knew it was never going to be easy but when the doors were going to close we decided [to make it work].

"We're very tied up in the local community, the football, netball, tennis and cricket teams and we wanted to renovate it and bring it up to a comfortable standard so all the sporting teams had a place to come back to, it's a real meeting place."

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The Corrigans knew if the pub closed, as it was slated to do when previous owner Paddy Hodgkin could not find a buyer, it would severely impact the town.

"We'd just seen other country towns surrounding us, once the pub closes the town dies and we wanted to try eliminate that," he said.

"That was the main goal really."

Mr Corrigan said new lessee and pub operator Alison Baldock, had plenty of passion for the place and town.

He said he hoped the residents would support her as they've supported the Corrigans.

"We certainly have great memories there," he said.

"The local people have been very supportive of us and we'll miss our patrons a great deal.

"There are great people in this community and we've certainly got to know them better working there."

The Doodle Cooma Arms has been for sale since April 2018, after Mr and Mrs Corrigan decided they wanted to step back from the operation to spend more time with their family.

The pub will officially change hands on April 1, with the Corrigans hosting a live music night on March 30 as a farewell.

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