ARVADA, Colo. — ARVADA, Colo. — Days after the shooting in Olde Town Arvada, more businesses are continuing to open their doors and find some sense of a new normal.
"I guess it is weird in this day and age, considering how much this happens, to say I didn’t expect it here, but I didn’t expect it here," said Jamie Hollier, owner of Balefire Goods.
Hollier was working inside her store during the shooting, a moment that shook Arvada.
"It just is not something that we ever planned for," said Hollier.
All of this happened during a time of reopening and return to a new normal in Arvada.
"We were doing really well and we were really positive about what this summer was going to hold for us," said Hollier.
Even from a city-wide perspective, the Arvada Resiliency Taskforce felt most of its work of helping businesses throughout the pandemic was winding down. Until they realized, the community still needed their support.
"This group was immediately going to get to work and implementing solutions and finding out how we supported the community in a really difficult time," said Joe Hengstler, executive director of the Olde Town Arvada Business Improvement District.
One of the most important ways was face to face conversations, hugs and support.
"We worked with the Jefferson Center for Mental Health and they have been fantastic and they have set up a pop-up clinic here in Olde Town for the community as a whole and we’ve been communicating out to the businesses to say these resources are here for you," said Hengstler.
Hollier even remebers police officers coming by after losing one of their own, asking if they were OK.
"To me that was really telling about the type of police force this is," said Hollier.
For guests the message is clear, Arvada is ready to welcome you.
"This isn’t going to define us, this isn’t going to break Olde Town. Olde Town is Arvada is a special community to a lot of people for a lot of reasons and this isn’t going to change that," said Joe Hengstler.
With the help of Arvada’s Chamber, the city, and the businesses improvement district, people have gone business to business asking if there’s anything they need. Work they know will go on for weeks to come.