What could have been the end of the road for a less tenacious business has, in fact, become a rebirth of sorts for Riverside Auto Center.

Amid the charred rubble that was a hub of activity on the corner of Main and Bonner Streets, Riverside Auto has merely shifted headquarters to the west side of the sales lot and is conducting “business as usual.”

According to Bill Hiatt, Jr., “We’ve been busy and we’re fully operational. We were up and running within 24 hours; the next morning, our sales people were ready to go. Our staff has been awesome; they spent hours digging through the rubble to help out. We’re not going to stand still in the mud; we’re moving forward.”

Wendy Hawks concurred with her “little brother” about the positive changes that are going to take place at Riverside in the months to come.

“We’re going to rebuild as a modern dealership,” she said. “We’ll have more open area. We’re moving the building to the west side of our lot so that our sales area with all the vehicles will be on the corner of Main and Bonner in front of us. The service write-up area will be right in the show room.”

Bill was enthusiastic about the possibilities the future holds for this four generation auto dealership, “This week the old building should be knocked down. Right now, we want to stress that we are going to use local builders as much as possible so we want contractors to contact us. We are accepting bids – in fact, everybody’s invited to submit a bid. We’re old school, so come see us, say hi and let us know what you want to do. We want to make this a community project, not just a one-man show. We plan to be done and moved into our new office before the snow flies.”

The Hiatt family expressed sincere appreciation for the support of the community.

“We appreciate everybody’s patience during this transition,” Wendy emphasized.

“We have learned how great of a community Boundary County is,” said Bill. “We’d like to thank the Chamber of Commerce, Subway and Alberto’s for the donated meals, KG & T Septic for the Port-a-Potties and Foust, Inc. for the loan of the portable kitchen trailer. We’ve received over 100 calls of support and we really appreciate them all.”