History in the making?

BLUE RIVER: There were plenty of smiles on the faces of people to go along with sunny skies last Saturday. Many of the grins were on faces that a week before had spent a rainy day spiffing up the town in anticipation of celebrating the rebuilding of fire-damaged public structures and homes.

As Cliff Richardson of Locals Helping Locals noted during his opening remarks, the soft opening of the Blue River Fire Station was an event that “Blue River can now brag about,” as well as the progress of the nearby work underway to bring back the O’Brien Memorial Library and the McKenzie River Clinic.

Providing an update on the housing front was Brandi Crawford Ferguson of the McKenzie Community Land Trust, a nonprofit group that’s working on a lot on Rose Street. Ferguson said they hope to break ground in September to begin building stick houses that will be sold to buyers, while the trust retains the land to keep costs low.

Melanie Stanley, owner of Meyer’s General Store, said she’s hoping to break ground on her project for the return of the first commercial structure to be rebuilt after the Holiday Farm Fire. She said she’s looking forward to seeing “sticks in the air” as the walls go up and thanked “the entire community for sticking with us.”

Other people also provided information about other projects like a Dark Skies proposal for improving celestial viewing to the Homes For Good’s progress on rebuilding the old Lazy Days RV Par,

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