Assessment planned for former Fair Deal Furniture building

Main Street Thermopolis is gearing up for another building assessment on April 5 to discover whether an abandoned building on Arapahoe is viable for use.

The former Fair Deal Furniture building at 518 Arapahoe will be looked over by an outside company to determine whether or not it can be renovated or repaired in order to create space for a business or two.

Amanda Moeller, one of the Main Street Thermopolis members, said there is already someone with some interest in the building.

Another project the group has been working on is a list of buildings and businesses on Arapahoe, Broadway and Fifth Streets, the core of the business district in town.

The list includes what business in currently in each building, which stores are empty, and who the owners of the buildings are. The list also shows the year each building was built, giving the group an historical reference point for the age of each building.

While compiling the list they discovered a number of buildings were constructed in 1917, 100 years ago.

There was a fire that decimated a majority of downtown businesses at that time, however, Thermopolis citizens being Thermopolis citizens, there was an ensuing building boom that spanned Broadway, Arapahoe and Fifth Streets.

The list was divided up among the members of the group at their meeting and they will be contacting the owners to add even more information such as what upgrades may have been done to the buildings and if any projects are in the works, including a time frame for them to be completed.

By having this list and the information included, there will be a better history going forward as to what businesses were in which buildings over the years and what, if any, upgrades were done to them for future generations to work from.

With 21 buildings turning 100 this year, Main Street Thermopolis is considering some sort of celebration to commemorate the birthday, possibly attached to Oktobrewfest.

The group has also set the date for their annual downtown clean-up project. This year it will be held on May 25, from 6 – 8 p.m.

Main Street Thermopolis also welcomed two new members to the group, John Dorman, who will sit on the board for one year, and Holly Thomas, who will also sit on the board for a year.