A note from Ron Ridehalgh:
For the last twenty-two years, my office has occupied the second floor of the Weil Arcade at 233 East Main Street in Hillsboro. On January 2, a man broke into a realtor’s office on the first floor of our building. That man set a fire that quickly engulfed the entire building destroying all the offices in our building – including ours. This was a very intense fire that was classified as a four-alarm fire needing 90 firefighters at one time with shifts of new firefighters coming in to relieve the exhausted firefighters over the long battle to stop the fire. There were fears that the fire might destroy the entire city block. Thankfully, the fire was contained to our building – although the neighboring buildings were damaged and made uninhabitable due to the safety concerns. Further, the entire block facing first street continued to be blocked off due to fears that the remaining front wall of the building would fall for a few months until the remains of the building were demolished.
Most importantly, that fire also killed one man who was in the building at the time. The arsonist has been arrested and is currently being prosecuted for Murder, Arson, as well as other associated charges for all the damage he caused.
For the Months of January, February, and March we were in temporary nearby office space. Since April, we have been in our new long-term office space across the street from the Washington County Courthouse. Our new building is the ‘1890 Building’ at 180 East Main. We are in Suite 210.
I wish to mention some of the many people who were so incredibly generous and helpful during these trying months. Of the many people, I must mention are:
The people of my office and their families! Although this fire horribly disrupted my ability to handle my court dockets, all my attorneys kept handling their cases without disruption (and Gabe took over most of my court work) – indeed, they were all in court the day after the fire! Kylie was in a jury trial just two days after the fire. My attorneys are normally in court in Washington County every day – and all of them put their clients first and continued to fight on. I cannot adequately express how grateful I am to have these people working with me. Thank you Cindy, Jamela, Tyler, Melissa, Kylie, Gabe, Angus, Jennifer, and Heather! You and your families also provided computers and so much more help to keep us going!
Also, to all my former employees who reached out and gave us aid in rebuilding, thank you! Thomas, you and Cindy rebuilt our juvenile practice; and I cannot adequately express my gratitude. I also must thank Andy McLain of McLain Legal Services. Our ability to help families was quickly restored because of Andy’s generous help. If you ever need a divorce/family law attorney, there is no doubt that Andy McLain is one the elite divorce and family law attorneys in Oregon. Also, Jennelle Johnson helped us restore our criminal defense capabilities - thank you also for our new Wookie Award (side note: we have always had prizes in the office for wining trials and Jennelle gave us a new one to keep the tradition alive)!
To the people of the Washington County Law Library - on that first day after the fire, you immediately offered to let us use your conference room as our office. My people had a place to meet and coordinate and that was incredibly helpful on that first critical day.
We were only in the Law Library for one day thanks to the efforts of Hillsboro Mayor Steve Callaway and the Hillsboro’s Economic Development Project Manager Karla Antonini. They reached out to Adam Saffell a local State Farm Insurance agent. Adam then reached out to the Washington County Democratic Party office on my behalf and the Washington County Democratic Party allowed us to move into their office and we stayed there for all of January and into February. The Democratic Office didn’t ask if the people in my office were Democratic or Republican voters - I employ both reliably Democratic and reliably Republican voters – The Democratic Office just heard that people in the community were in need, and they offered to help!
Then, Sarah Loften of Loftin and Masri Law Firm (an amazing bilingual immigration attorney), let us move into half of her building until we were able to find a new long-term location.
Finally, regarding office space, Gene Zurbrugg of Zurbrugg Development Company who quickly and beautifully built out our new long-term office space and - and like so many of those referenced here - he simply worked to help a member of our community who was in need.
I also must mention Matthew Bassist of NAI Elliott Real Estate for valuable advice and guidance.
Of the many other lawyers and law firms, I must mention the excellent attorneys at Hillsboro Law Group PC – thank you Grant Burton and thank you Kym Bateman! Another firm with excellent attorneys who help us rebuild was Cornerstone Law Group – thank you Nate Law! I also won’t forget the help provided by the skilled attorneys at Harris Velazquez Gibbens – thank you Rob Harris! Other attorneys that helped greatly include Anne Tracey and David Rich! Every single one of the law firms, attorneys, and non-attorney staff listed above provided tremendous help recreating forms, providing notaries until our replacement notary stamps were made, and in very many other ways!
Crucially helpful were also the Judge of the Washington County Circuit Court and their Judicial Clerks and Judicial Assistance. Your words of encouragement and reassurance had tremendous importance to me. Your help working with my people to make sure that no client was lost in this process will never be forgotten!
Of undeniably tremendous assistance were Wendy Meeuwsen and Paul Sander of Fordham Goodfellow Accounting. Wendy, through tremendous detailed and frustrating work, helped rebuild years of our records.
I need to also mention the Hillsboro Downtown Partnership, and through them, the Greater Hillsboro Community. I am without the proper words to express my gratitude for your generosity and dedication to helping the people of our community! Thank you!
Another person to mention is Jerry Esquivel, Broadband Account Manager of Hillsboro HiLight, who provided great counsel, connected me with Gene Zurbrugg, and continues even now to render aid to make my systems work. Your advice and personal on-site help both in our temporary locations and our new long-term office gave us the technological ability to keep our enterprise running! Jerry also put me in touch with Mike Cuciti of CBM Computer Solutions who has guided me through the creation of a new network architecture that is better than we ever had before.
I must also thank the dedicated people of the Department of Human Services - Child Welfare Services. You worked so hard with Cindy to also make sure that none of the children and none of the parents that we represent were missed for even one moment. Your normal work is so very difficult; and when we were in need, you were also there for us! Thank you!
The people of the Washington County District Attorney Office also were crucial in my firm’s survival. When we lost everything, you went through great effort to re-provide to us terabytes of police reports, videos, and other evidence. You even let us borrow a laptop for us to use against you during our first trial against you after the fire. Your office’s professionalism and dedication to getting to the truth is something I will always remember!
There are many more that I have failed to mention. I also know that there are many who helped my employees without me ever knowing. To all those many people, again thank you!
As my last comment for now, I wish to mention that on the day of the fire David Rich (a local attorney with whom I have shared many cases over my entire career) was the first person to give me a hug and to offer help in rebuilding. James Jenson (another local attorney, and a fellow victim of the fire – he had one of the neighboring buildings and was also displaced by the fire), was the first to pat me on the back and reassure me that we would save our businesses. Thank you! We work in system that can often be dehumanizing and is almost always confrontational - the very human kindness that you both shared with me will always stay with me.