Business owners ponder future after fire

    Debbie Royal heard the phone ring at 3:39 a.m. Her husband, Jae Guetschow, answered.
    “Okay,” he said. “We’ll be right there.”
    Royal’s first thought was that Jae’s son had an emergency. Then the owner of Royal Expressions thought about her mother.
    “Cakes n’ Shakes is on fire and the fire department needs your keys to get,” he explained.
    Royal doesn’t even remember the drive downtown. But she recalls what she saw when she arrived.
    “I saw that great big ladder truck from Madison and the four other departments. All I remember is the huge amounts of water being flooded on the building. I stood there and watched and thought, ‘Why doesn’t it go out?’”
    Kathy and Bob Valdez, owners of Cakes n’ Shakes, arrived a little later.
    “I remember seeing all those flame and it was hard to believe what I was seeing. It felt like I was watching a movie, but I knew it was real. I had such a sick feeling,” Bob Valdez said. “In a matter of seconds, your whole life changes. It’s a different feeling.”
    Royal also said she felt like she was watching a movie.
    “It was just like you see in the movies. You’re standing there, watching your livelihood go up in flames, and you’re helpless to do anything about it,” she said. “It was surreal.”
    A door north  of Royal Expressions, Dr. Daniel and Dr. Ashley Bailey own Bailey Family Chiropractic. The newlyweds recently opened their practice after months and months of hard work renovating the business. Daniel received a text message from a friend at 5 a.m., asking him if his building was on fire.
    “I thought, ‘Is this guy messing with us or what?’ I didn’t know if he was just getting home from the bar or what. But then I talked to him and he said their was a big fire downtown and that he’d heard about it from a coworker who had driven through Blissfield,” Daniel recalled.
    The couple visited a Toledo television website and saw the footage.
    “My heart sank,” said Ashley Bailey.
    They arrived downtown and discovered that, relative to her neighbors, they’d escaped relative unscathed. They had a lot of water in their basement, and their building was filled with smoke. But a day later, it was much improved. Now, they’re worried about their neighbors.
    “They’re great neighbors. They’re nice people and they have great businesses that create a lot of foot traffic downtown,” said Ashley. “I want to believe that they’re going to be able to reopen.”
    Many are wondering what lies ahead for the businesses and the buildings. An insurance company is expected to send a structural engineer to the site this week to examine the buildings. It’s not known if the buildings will have to be torn down.
    Royal hopes that the east side of South Lane Street doesn’t add to its list of empty lots.
    “We don’t need another mini park,” she said.
    Royal is determined to reopen Royal Expressions. She said her insurance agent has told her that it could be three or four months before she can reopen at her current location, assuming the building is structurally sound. But in the meantime, she’s making plans to open in a temporary location. Doug Tagsold, of Tagsold’s Funeral Home, has offered her space in the basement of the funeral home. There are also other possibilities in town.
    There are a million tasks ahead of her. She is boxing all of her damaged goods for the insurance company. She is on the phone all the time. Her hard drive was recovered from the fire, but it was wet. She hoped to recover all of the important information from it. Royal, however, wanted to assure her customers that she would continue to honor her commitments.
    “For any customers who have something on layaway here, or who have set their wedding schedules with us, we are going to take care of them,” she said. “We’re going to regroup as best we can. We’re taking offers from all over town from people who want to help us set up shop,” she said. “We’re going to honor our commitments. We just need a little patience.”
    So much, however, must still be done. She’d recently struck a business arrangement with John and Connie Kwiatkowski, owner of Patina’s gift shop.  Patina’s began renting space in Royal Expressions just over a month ago. Both businesses were happy with the arrangement.
    “Our customers really seemed to like it. They would come in and see Debbie’s flowers in one of our buckets and buy both of them. We were really happy with the arrangement,” said Connie Kwiatkowski.
    When asked  by The Advance if they planned to continue their relationship, Royal and Kwiatkowski looked at each other.
    “We haven’t even had time to talk about that. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk about,” said Royal, who began filling in Kwiatkowski on some of the options available.
    Kwiatkowski said she wants to maintain the relationship, but inventory could be a problem since so much of her product line is handcrafted.
    “I really don’t know know if I much to sell right at the moment,”’ she said, fighting back  tears.
    Kathy Valdez isn’t sure about the future for Cakes n’ Shakes. She and her husband were surprised at how little damage was actually done to the main floor of the building.
    “It looks like it can be cleaned up,” she said, hopefully.
    The bakery lost all of its food product. But much of the equipment will be salvaged, including the historic soda fountain, which was taken away to be cleaned.
    “A lot is going to depend on the insurance,” said Kathy Valdez, when asked if her business was going to reopen.
    Her husband, Bob, said there were other considerations, too.
    “A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that business. You have to ask yourself if you really want to do it again,” he said.
    Although it was a traumatizing experience, Royal maintained hope that the tragedy might actually bring about positive change.
    “Maybe it’s an opportunity. Maybe I can come back leaner and meaner,” she said.