Flooded First Ave. gas station finally cleaned up

Mayor Ron Corbett says the tipped-over gas pumps in front of the flood-pounded convenience store at First Avenue and First Street NW came to symbolize all that the city and he weren't doing to get the city back on its feet more than two years after the 2008 flood.

The spot is far from a park now, but it's lovely compared to what it was in a city still just part of the way along on flood recovery.

The destroyed gas pumps are gone, the store's broken-out windows boarded over and the lot cleaned up at one of the gateway's to the city's downtown.

And Corbett credits new City Manager Jeff Pomeranz, who started work on Sept. 20, for the change.

“He got done in a couple weeks what I couldn't in nine months,” the mayor said.

Pomeranz on Friday said the city had been sorting out complaints about the property since July – two years after the flood – only to learn in late September that a Wisconsin bank had purchased the property at a sheriff's sale. The city contacted the bank, which referred the matter to a local property manager, who paid to remedy the worst problems with the property.

“This is just one issue of many, many,” Pomeranz said. “But the mayor got me motivated on it.”

He noted that the convenience store sign had the gas price at $3.59 a gallon, a reminder both of how long the place had been in disrepair and of the relatively inexpensive gasoline prices that are now available.