August 1, 1997

Will the real Dillard’s store please stand up?

Will the real Dillard’s store please stand up?

The Eye did a double-take recently during a leisurely drive through the tiny hamlet of Galeton in central Weld County. Right there before our very Eye was a Dillard’s store.

No, not that one.

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Before Dillard Department Stores Inc. of Little Rock, Ark., made a push into this region with new stores in Longmont and Cheyenne, as well as at several Denver-area locales, there was the original Dillard’s.It’s a 2,000-square-foot, authentic small-town grocery serving Galeton, located on Weld County Road 74 east of Eaton.
“It’s a little more than a convenience store,´ said Kathy Blackwell, who with her husband, Jon, has owned the store for two years. “There’s also a post office in the back of the store.”
They bought it from the Dillard family, which launched the business in 1932.
As it should be with any small-town stopping-off place, Blackwell says the best thing about the business is the people. Customers mostly are made up of locals, farmers from the outlying areas, and an occasional trucker.
Blackwell says they don’t mind the large retailer using the name that’s graced their store for decades. But confusion does arise. The couple occasionally gets misdirected phone calls from people wanting to know about department-store sales.
The Eye wonders if the Arkansas Dillard’s experiences confused people trying to drop off mail.n n nThe Eye offers a hearty “thank-you” to Phil Walker and the news crew at KCOL 1410 AM in Fort Collins for their seemingly tireless coverage of the devastating flash flood that hit Fort Collins in late July. Phil and his crew provided a calming voice during the disaster and its aftermath, providing vital information all along the way.
Phil’s efforts were noted on KCNC Channel 4, with a mini-profile by Larry Green, and he received at least one thank-you from Newsradio 850 KOA in Denver for his contribution to that station’s news-gathering efforts. KOA is a sister station of KCOL.n n nRoland Mower isn’t the only person in his family to have entered the economic-development arena. The Eye has learned that the president of the Fort Collins Economic Development Corp.’s younger brother, Richard, fills the No. 2 spot at the Broomfield Economic Development Corp., an organization at the center of some of the region’s largest economic-development initiatives.
Broomfield’s Interlocken business park is in the running for a huge Nike complex that could eventually employ 5,000 to 10,000 people. That’s after Interlocken already landed a Sun Microsystems facility.
Word has it that Roland got nary a hint from Richard that Broomfield was in the running for the eco-devo plum, along with four other states and British Columbia.
But the Mowers aren’t the only brothers with local connections taking up the same profession.
Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce president Mike Hauser’s brother, David, is executive vice president of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce in Oregon, a fact that undoubtedly made for some interesting conversations when Eugene landed Hyundai Electronics America’s $1.3 billion semiconductor plant, a project that bypassed Fort Collins.

Will the real Dillard’s store please stand up?

The Eye did a double-take recently during a leisurely drive through the tiny hamlet of Galeton in central Weld County. Right there before our very Eye was a Dillard’s store.

No, not that one.

Before Dillard Department Stores Inc. of Little Rock, Ark., made a push into this region with new stores in Longmont and Cheyenne, as well as at several Denver-area locales, there was the original Dillard’s.It’s a 2,000-square-foot, authentic small-town grocery serving Galeton, located on Weld County Road 74 east of Eaton.
“It’s a little more than a convenience store,´ said Kathy Blackwell,…

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