Signs of life emerge in Colorado mountain town after Nederland shopping center fire

John Thompson is feeling pretty well off.

"There's my brother rich, who has a lot of money and then there's me rich. I've got a lot of friends."

Thompson, owner of the Mountain Man store in the Caribou Village Shopping Center, lost his business in the Oct. 9 fire. Friday, he plans to reopen at a new location just across the main road from the shopping center.

"If I sat down for a minute, I wouldn't get up. I needed to just keep moving," he said. He has insurance, but there's been no payment yet. Instead, townspeople have taken to donating and helping out. He decided to reopen as quickly as possible rather than wait for insurance money.

"Because of the people in the town. Everybody is just like, 'You were such a great part of this community, here's $100."

Thompson has dubbed the new shop Mountain Man 2.0. Community members have helped with monetary donations as well as donations of clothing and shoes. The business sells new and used gear, and it was all lost in the fire. He already has stock to sell thanks to donations.

"I'm just this guy. I came up with this idea to come up with a store, and I'm just trying to run it nicely. You know, I give people locals' discounts and I just try to treat everybody good. And it's amazing how that's come back now," said Thompson.

"It was a hard, emotional, terrible emotional event for so many of the people who work there and own businesses there," said Nederland Mayor Billy Giblin. 

The town lost somewhere between 60 and 70 jobs when the fire hit. So far, investigators have said there is no credible evidence that the fire was intentionally set. That was a relief, but there's still no cause established. There have been fundraisers, and another big event with music is planned for Saturday. But there is little chance of significant help from the state or federal government.

"It's not quite a large enough disaster to fall for some of the state and federal funding that we could get if it were bigger," said Giblin.

The town has eased back on zoning regulations to allow for the placement of some temporary structures for businesses in the downtown area.

"Ideally, we'll help all of the businesses. We'll do our part," said Giblin.

The town of about 1500 has lost a significant chunk of sales tax revenue, with over 20 businesses shutting down. It's not clear if that's somewhere around 15% or less or as much as 25%-30%.

"Nederland hasn't had money in a long time, like it's been like this for a while," said town administrator Jon Cain. It's from that money that goes into a general fund that pays for things like road plowing. "It's just how small towns work, we'll find a way to make it go," said Cain.

The fire raises a question about the town's ability to carry out a plan announced this year to purchase and operate the Eldora Ski Area. That is still in negotiations. Cain does not believe what's happened will affect that effort.

"What we're doing with the ski area is using revenue bonds. So it's a different structure; it doesn't actually hit the sales tax for the town. And it's going to be in what's called an Enterprise fund." 

But there are bound to be some ancillary costs to the town that remain to be tallied. Bringing businesses back as soon as possible is key to keeping things going. They've brought in a laundry truck to give people a place to wash clothes after the laundromat burned. There are plans for some businesses to go into the refurbished bank building that will help. But rebuilding the shopping complex will take a while.

"My big push was to get something up and running for me, but also for the town," said Thompson. One thing will be different from 12 years ago when he first opened Mountain Man. "This time I know what I'm doing."