The Farmington Diner still sits where it was moved in February, but the new owner has used the time to work on her plan to reopen the diner.

Rachel Jackson Hodsdon bought the diner for $1 and spent $15,000 to move it about 5 miles from the Intervale in Farmington to the corner of Cemetery Road and Route 2 in East Wilton.

During the past months, she invited the executive director of the American Diner Museum to visit, received an estimate and advice on renovating it and considered the best location for it.

Hodsdon would like to keep the diner where it is and open only for breakfast and lunch, but location is a big consideration, she said.

There’s a chance the diner may return to Farmington, Hodsdon said in late December. She is considering moving it to the Mt. Blue Shopping Center on Route 2, a couple miles east of the current location. The rent needs to be negotiated and she has to “crunch the numbers” to see what is affordable.

She has also scheduled a meeting with Ernest Gurney of New Beginnings Youth Outreach to discuss involving young people in the rehab project. She’s hoping to duplicate the American Diner Museum’s New Hope Diner project, in which juveniles help renovate a diner while learning skills to improve their lives.

– Ann Bryant