A Blue River resident and disaster relief worker says the town is just about a third rebuilt, since being leveled by 2020’s Holiday Farm Fire.
Melanie Stanley is disaster case manager and resource navigator for Cascade Relief Team. She’s also an owner of Meyers General Store and Liquor Shop which was destroyed in the wildfire.
Progress has been slower than locals would like to see. Stanley told KLCC that besides permitting and zoning challenges, building costs are still “through the roof.”
“Commercial building right now is somewhere between $750 and $900 a square foot,” said Stanley. “My original building -if we’re gonna round up at almost a thousand dollars a square foot - if you go on the very high end, that’s $2 million to build a building.”
Stanley added there’s also an issue of properties being uninsured or underinsured, as many were covered based on building costs years ago. She hopes supply chain issues and inflation ease up, to better facilitate the rebuilding process for Blue River homes and businesses.