Time runs out for historic Winneshiek County building

The Winneshiek County caretaker's house, located near Freeport and recently placed on Preservation Iowa's list of the state's Most Endangered Properties, will be coming down in the near future.

During a special session Wednesday morning, the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution on a 3-1 vote to provide $10,400 in county funds toward the deconstruction of the building that was builty in 1915. Supervisors Les Askelson, John Logsdon and Steve Bouska voted in favor of the resolution, and Lonnie Pierce voted against it. Supervisor Bill Ibanez was absent.

In September 2008, the supervisors approved an agreement with the Oneota Historic Future Alliance that gave the organization two years to have the caretaker's house placed on the National Register of Historic Places and to identify a potential tenant, or take the building down by Nov. 30, 2010. When the organization, an area historic preservation group,  was unable to meet the deadline, it was given an extension.  A Northeast Iowa Community College deconstruction class was scheduled twice to  take the building down, but the classes were scheduled when not enough students signed up for the course. The supervisors set a final deadline of Dec. 31, 2011, to comply with the agreement.

The resolution approved Wednesday includes a provision that Oneota Historic Future Alliance's obligation to the county will be satisfied if it pays the county $5,000 by Dec. 31.

Jim Burns, president of the gorup,  told supervisors he'd obtained a $13,400 bid from Ted Stakis of TSC Construction of Dubuque to remove the house, but that the firm would reduce its fee by $1,000 if it could "piggyback" the project with another job it has in the area,  the removal of the Wapsie Produce building in Decorah.

As part of its agreement with the county, the Future Alliance has set aside $5,000 in an escrow account to pay expenses related to the caretaker's house, but  the group only has $2,000 available after it paid $3,300 for asbestos removal.

"Beyond that, we don't have any assets to offer," he said. "We're a historic preservation organization.We don't have donors for demolishing buildings."

Askelson, the board's chairman, asked about the funds the organization has raised from the sale of bricks from East Side School in Decorah. The group is storing bricks and wood salvaged from the former elementary school for resale.

Burns said Deborah Bishop was in charge of that project for and as far as he knew there was no money available from those sales. He said the organization received bills of $800 and $900 every so often for an equipment operator involved in the sorting of bricks. The alliance also has to pay rent on a facility where wood from East Side is stored.

Pierce said he was not in favor of approving the resolution unless the county could recoup its funds from the alliance.

That would bankrupt the alliance, and the organization would then dissolve, Burns said.

Bouska said the cost for removing the building would likely be twice as much in a couple of years.

"We started in 2008 with good intentions, but here's where we are today. In another year, there may be no market for this stuff," Logsdon said.

Askelson said it would cost $35,000 in tipping fees plus the contractor's costs if the county had to haul the caretaker's house to the landfill.

"This firm is in town, so we could save some money," he said.

Burns said TSC has pledged only 15 percent of the building would be going into the county's landfill.

Windows, window frames, doors, door frames, wood flooring, beam flooring and ceiling and bricks will be saved. Much of the material will be sold "on the spot" and whatever remains will be hauled to Dubuque. The firm will give the county back 10 percent of any sales they make at the caretaker's house.

A resource

Julie Fischer, a member of the Caretaker's House Coalition, a group that wants the building preserved and reused, said the house is worth $48,000 and will cost the county $10,500 to take down, in addition to the cost of county workers removing the foundation.

"It has potential as a multi hundred thousand dollar resource if left to stand. It's quite a sum you'd be doing away with," she said.

Fischer said appropriate reuses for the building are emerging, and the board should have used its expertise to assist citizens interested in saving the building.