A Town's Loss

It's Thankful Thursday and today this will take a bit of a different approach. When we moved here almost 10 years ago, we quickly became aware of a historical mill in the old part of town. It had been here since the 1902 and had had wheat as well as sugar beets and was the busiest business in town. It radically and permanently altered the town. In May of 2008, when a tornado ripped through Windsor, the mill was damaged extensively. Since then, the town has sought out investors to repair and remodel it; just recently we have seen tremendous amounts of work being done by Blue Ocean, hoping to bring in lots of small businesses, a brewery and a restaurant. The entire town was looking forward to this.  The first two pics are from the damage the tornado did; this is how the building looked up until this last year.

Monday morning about 3:00 am a firetruck and ambulance were driving by and saw a glow. The Fire Department was on scene within two minutes, but by then it was fully engulfed.

It is hard to see, but if you look up in the right top corner you will see something small-ATF is using a drone to get a better idea of what is left.  One of my walking partners went by it Monday evening and said there were still flames shooting high.  Today, we saw firemen still spraying hot spots.

Such a loss for our town; we can only hope that Blue Ocean will rebuild in the original design.  It is so sad for our small town that was looking forward to new businesses.  Thankfully, no one was inside when the fire occurred.  Thankfully no firefighters were injured.  Thankfully ATF is here to help determine the cause.  Thankfully our little town will recover, just like it did from the tornado.  I'm thankful that our town has old historic buildings that capture the essence of an era gone by.
What are you thankful for today?
Noreen