Last week Charlotte and Stan Upah wave from a Polaris”Slingshot” vehicle in front of their rebuilt USS?Polaris and Upah Bookkeeping and Income Tax service businesses on U.S. 63 in Toledo. Chronicle photos/John Speer

One year ago, on the morning of June 20, a devastating fire destroyed much of the USS Polaris, Upah Income Tax and Bookkeeping Service and Dostal Construction offices and storage on Toledo’s north side.

Exactly a year later, on this Saturday, June 20, owners Stan and Charlotte Upah and employees are celebrating the reopening of their businesses on the site of the former location with an open house from 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. and a dance in the evening.

USS Repair was temporarily located in a building at adjacent Z-Line while the rebuilding process went on. Upah Income Tax and Bookkeeping Service operated out of temporary quarters in the former Doyle’s Family Pharmacy in downtown Toledo.

“We spent three weeks after the fire considering what to do,” Stan and Charlotte Upah said last week. “It would have been a good time to walk away, we had some insurance money and we have other interests.

“But (with) consideration of our customers, employees and the community, we knew we had to rebuild.”

One year ago on June 20, fire rages through the location as employees and volunteers scrambled to move vehicles away from the fire.

The Upahs said the Toledo and four area fire departments which responded to the blaze a year ago did everything they could but the location of the fire in the upper part of the building was too intense. No cause for the fire was established.

They said over 170 people came in or contacted them in just the week following the fire to offer their help. The fire not olny destroyed the building, but shop equipment, tools and parts and accessory inventories were lost. Some important files were able to be saved, however.

Now, rebuild they have. The newly constructed building, upon which work was begun on Jan. 15, features double the space fro USS Polaris operations including a 5,100 sq. ft. showroom and triples the former space for Upah Bookkeeping and Tax Service. The new building is of steel-frame construction.

The Upah credits 100s of hours spent in the rebuilding process to many people including five employees Brock Rohrs, John Kalinay, Calvin Kupka, Scott Hubbard and Stan’s brother, Al Upah.

USS Polaris is the dealer for the line of vehicles in a 60-mile radius of Toledo with some 80 new and 40 used units in stock. in addition, USS Cornwood furnaces, Ariens-Gravely lawnmowers and AMERICO Trailers are sold. in addition, a full line of Polaris parts and accessories and farm equipment parts is stocked.

The spacious new showroom at USS Polaris in Toledo.

But the heart of the business is farm equipment repair specializing the Ford line of tractors and equipment.

That was the start of USS Repair in 1982 which was located in what is now Z-Line to the south. The name was officially changed to USS Polaris in 2007.

Charlotte began Upah Income Tax and Bookkeeping Service in downtown Tama in 1982 and relocated when the repair business building was built in 1989.

She offers services to farm and private businesses and individuals.

Those employees at the two businesses including Pat Albert, Jeff Brezina, Roger Pelt, Ashley Bolen, Janelle Murty, Tom Husak and in the shop, Brock Rohrs, John Kalimay, Calvin Kpuka and Scott Hubbard.

The Upahs have three children: Andy, attending Mundelein Seminary School near Chicago; Sara Cross, a guidance counselor and husband Luke, a school teacher in Colorado who have three children, Colby, Karolina and Caleb; and Kristy Stoken, a community volunteer coordinator for Hy-Vee and husband, Tyler, assistant Coe College football coach in Cedar Rapids and their two childrenb Avery and Cade.