WILTON – Doug Nelson says he is almost ready to reopen the store on Main Street.

Closed since the Halloween wind and rain storm “lifted a section of the roof and all the water came in.” Nelson said on Tuesday the extensive repairs and renovations are almost complete,

“We had to replace most of the ceiling, the mouldings, and around the windows,” he said. “About 1,000 square feet of ceiling. Replace the wiring overhead and all the lights. We had to reinsulate that whole section.”

The biggest headache he said, “was all the clean-up. Dirt and debris covered the whole store.”

Most of that is gone now and the shelves and cases are back in place.

He missed making candy through the month of November, he said, when he is usually getting all the Christmas stuff ready, one of his busiest months.

“But it will be open before Christmas,” he said, with all of the chocolate, in all of its many forms, and the fruit slices, and the wintergreen patties, and the pecan “Turtles,” and all the rest.

– JESSIE SALISBURY