LINCOLN – Displaced businesses and organizations are starting to pick up the pieces in the wake of two tragic fires in January that wiped out 25 percent of Lincoln’s downtown business district.

The four building owners and 10 business owners directly affected by the fires are in various stages of planning their futures.

All four of the building owners hope to rebuild, although they say their plans remain up in the air until damage assessments and insurance issues are completed.

Robert Enochs, who owned the Lake Mall, which housed three businesses and organizations at 24 Main St., and Eugene Ayer, owner of a building that housed three business at 26 through 30 Main St., both said this week they plan to rebuild.

Steve and Jeannette Ruhl, owners of a building at 25 Main St. that housed their photo studio and art gallery and another business, still are exploring options but hope to rebuild sometime in the future.

So does Natalie Parent. She owned the building at 27 and 29 Main St. that housed a sign and craft shop she and her sister, Suzette Worster, operated. The building also housed a used clothing and tanning shop.

The charred rubble left by the Jan. 17 fire, which destroyed the buildings owned by the Ruhls and Parent, has been cleaned up and hauled away, leaving two empty lots. The remains of the second fire, which destroyed the Lake Mall and the Ayer building Jan. 20, is roped off with yellow tape.

The first fire was caused by an overloaded extension cord. The second fire has been ruled arson, according to investigators. No arrest has been made. The investigation is continuing.

Nine of the 10 displaced business owners and organizations have relocated or are in the process of relocating to either permanent or temporary space within Lincoln.

One owner will not reopen. Susan Custis, the owner of AMB Video, said she plans to go back to school to become an elementary school teacher.

Gordon and Lynn Pratt, who had owned Pratt’s Hodge Podge Shop in the Ayer building, are reopening a portion of their business – wholesale floral arrangements – in their home. Beginning Thursday, Lynn Pratt will begin making floral arrangements to build an inventory.

Although the Ruhls and Parent haven’t made a decision about replacing their buildings, both plan to reopen portions of their former businesses in temporary locations.

Steve Ruhl, who still is accepting photo bookings from his home, plans to reopen a full-service photograph studio in March next door to the Lincoln Color Center on West Broadway.

Kim Bernier, the owner of the Gatherings for the Home shop who had leased space in the Ruhls’ building, plans to reopen her business April 13. She is relocating her dried floral and decorative home accent shop permanently to the former Carney’s building. That building now is owned by Paul and Brenda Smith who operate a gift and furnishings store called Possibilities.

The Smiths, who occupied a space in Ayer’s building, said they were very lucky because most of their specialty retail gifts and home furnishings were moved to their new building more than a week before the second fire.

Smith said he is thankful that the friend helping with the move had encouraged him to move two file cabinets full of business papers. “That was one of the best things that happened,” he said. Their new and expanded shop will open Feb. 11.

Parent is relocating a portion of her business – sign making, which will be called The Sign Place – to another business building she owns at 110 Main St., next to the town’s police and fire station. “I did a lot of the manufacturing part of my signs here anyway,” she said. She hopes to reopen the sign business next week.

Parent hasn’t made a decision about when she will reopen Harvest Moon, a business featuring numerous homemade crafts. “We tried to make the largest part of our inventory,” she said. “That is another reason why it’s hard to just reopen, we need time to get that inventory built up.”

Susan Moore, the owner of Nice Twice who had rented space from Parent, plans to reopen her used clothing shop next week at 84 Main St. in the former Staples Insurance building. She plans to begin taking clothing on consignment and providing UPS shipping services as soon as next week. She hopes to be offering tanning services within a few weeks.

While most of the businesses and agencies have found new space, a new discount grocery business – Susie Savers – hasn’t been as lucky. The new business had signed a lease to occupy the space Possibilities had in the Ayer building beginning Feb. 1. It planned to open in mid-February. Initially, the store would have employed four to six people.

“We have purchased our shelving and fixtures, but have no place to go,” said Alan Dill, the store’s purchasing manager.

He hasn’t been able to find about 5,000 square feet of reasonably priced retail space. Dill said the owners, whom he declined to identify, would like to locate in Lincoln, but they may be forced to look at other communities. “We are entertaining all offers and are willing to talk with anyone,” he said.

Three of the 10 displaced businesses are nonprofit organizations that had been housed in the Lake Mall. Nonprofit groups do not qualify for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance, which is aiding the other affected businesses.

One of the nonprofits, the Lincoln Lakes Regional Development Corp., has relocated to the town office. Two other nonprofit groups, KFI, an agency providing services to people with disabilities, and Northeast Occupational Exchange, a comprehensive mental health center and substance abuse agency serving adults and children, both have relocated to new temporary quarters.

KFI has relocated its 14-year- old Lincoln Branch office to the former radio station building on Park Street, at least for the next two months. Wearing plastic gloves, staff members have been carefully picking through the singed, soggy remains of important case files to duplicate them. “It takes hours and hours to do one file,” said Gail Fanjoy, KFI’s director of development.

Fanjoy said the agency hopes to find reasonably priced and handicapped-accessible office space in the downtown area, perhaps through future downtown redevelopment efforts. She said it is important the agency have a presence in the heart of the community to provide easy and direct access to the people they serve.

“We don’t know what we are going to do because there is no space right now ready-made that we could walk into that would meet our requirements,” said Fanjoy.

KFI had operated two divisions – community living and employment services – in the Lake Mall. Fanjoy said the agency’s insurance policy would not cover all of its losses. The group is seeking funding from foundations to help make up for the shortfall.

But Fanjoy said the agency was very lucky compared with the businesspeople who lost their livelihoods. “Our services were never interrupted; however, our headquarters has been severely inconvenienced,” she said.

Dr. Charles Tingley, director of Northeast Occupation Exchange, said the agency has relocated temporarily to the former Andrew’s Land Services building on West Broadway.

Tingley said it took the agency about two weeks to relocate. He said the agency is looking to construct a new building by this spring. Total damages have not been determined, but he said the loss was significant. Tingley said the agency is fortunate it had both paper and electronic records, which are networked into the Bangor office, but staff are working to rebuild 200 to 250 paper files. “We are slowly getting back together,” he said. “We have about one-fifth of the space we had.”

Despite their losses from the fires, business owners and officials of the various organizations say the community has shown tremendous support, including other businesses donating equipment and customers who have donated money and shown acts of kindness.