Lumberyard may head downtown (11/8/04)

A county-owned building in downtown Portland is being explored as a possible location for a lumberyard/home improvement store.

Milo Miller Jr., president of Jay County Commissioners, told fellow Commissioners Gary Theurer and Mike Leonhard this morning that the developer of the project has looked at and is possibly interested in a relatively short-term lease of the county-owned annex at 215 W. Main St.

At a September news conference, Michael Mazur, a former manager of a large home improvement store, announced plans for a start-up corporation called Community Home Improvement Inc.

At the time, Mazur, who said he hoped to be in business by the end of October, said the location had not been determined. One of the sites considered was the former Marsh store on the east side of North Meridian Street at Industrial Park Drive.

Mazur, the president and CEO of Community Home Improvement, confirmed this morning that the building, which was home to several car dealerships in the past, is “one of the final opportunities that we’re looking at. It’s not the only one, but it’s one of the few options we’ve got left.”

He also said this morning the former Marsh store was still an option.

“We’ll make a final decision by the middle of this week where we’re going to go. The Marsh building is still a possibility. We’re excited about coming to the community,” Mazur said.

Mazur said this morning that the county-owned building would likely be used for a 12- to 18-month period. “The ultimate goal is to go into a larger building,” Mazur said.

The county-owned building on West Main Street, which was purchased earlier this year as a possible site for expansion of Jay County Jail should expansion become necessary, is an L-shape that has nearly 10,000-square feet under roof.

Hanni Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, which is owned and operated by former building co-owner Jeff Sprunger, is currently occupying a garage/bay area on the west side of the building.

Sprunger deducted $12,000 from the purchase price of the building and signed a two-year lease agreement to occupy while paying only the cost of certain utilities.

Miller asked commissioners’ attorney Brad Burkett this morning how the county could get out of the lease with Sprunger.

Burkett said that an agreement would have to be reached between the commissioners and Sprunger regarding the existing lease — most likely in the form of a buyout.

The commissioners agreed that the prospective tenant should pay that cost.

Mazur said in September that the store could employ up to 19 sales associates.

Miller and Robert Quadrozzi, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, showed the building to representatives of Community Home Improvement on Friday, Oct. 29.

Also this morning, the commissioners announced they are seeking to fill a position on the Jay Hospital Board following the election of board member Bill Davis to the Indiana House of Representatives.

Davis officially took office on Wednesday, the day after the election. Because hospital board member and state legislator are both lucrative offices by definition of Indiana law, Davis gave up his hospital board seat he took office as a state representative.

Miller was given a short list of possible replacements by board president John Young, but said they wanted to take a week to gather input.

Leonhard said he would like to hear from people who would be interested in serving on the board.

The commissioners said they expect to make a decision on a new board member next week.

In other business this morning, the commissioners participated in a common wage construction committee meeting for two upcoming publicly-financed projects.

Separate meetings involving the same participants were held for a project to replace a bridge in Bearcreek Township and to construct a new industrial spec building in the Dunkirk Industrial Park.

Replacement of bridge 57, which is located on county road 500 North just west of county road 450 East, is expected to cost about $300,000.

The Dunkirk spec building, which is being built by the Dunkirk Industrial Development Corporation using economic development income tax funds, will cost about $350,000.

Among those on the committee were county engineer Dan Watson, Miller and Theurer, Troy Smith of the AFL-CIO and Ambat Babu of the Indiana Department of Labor.

Wage averages provided by Smith were adopted by the committee.

Under Indiana law, all public projects must abide by the wage scales adopted by local committees.[[In-content Ad]]