Move is still in the works

Back in February, it looked as if Community and Family Services was ready to move into a new home in Jay County in 2015.
But sometimes the path from Point A to Point B is a little more complicated than it seems.
“It’s been an adventure,” said CFS executive director Andy Glentzer.
Early this year, Glentzer outlined plans to relocate the headquarters of the six-county anti-poverty agency from Wayne Street just south of Hudson Family Park into the former site of Ken Kunkle Chevrolet on Meridian Street.
The former auto dealership had been purchased, and CFS was sketching out a variety of expanded programming and services, ranging from an entrepreneurship center to an adult day care facility.
But environmental concerns about the building proved to be more extensive than expected.
A gasoline service station originally stood on that site, Glentzer explained. In fact, the dealership building was erected around the service station, which became the dealership’s paint room.
And wherever there was a service station, there could very well be forgotten underground storage tanks and possibly contaminated soil if those tanks happened to leak.
In the first half of the 20th century, service stations were far more numerous. The intersection where the Kunkle building is located — Race and Meridian — at one point had a service station on each corner.
Glentzer said there are between one and three tanks buried on the property, and CFS has been working with Indiana Brownfields to clean up the site.
“We’ve known the complications,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting the funding.”
Currently, Creek Run Environmental of Montpelier is working on a “zonal” study of the site, trying to determine how much soil might have to be removed and where the tanks are located.
Fortunately, it appears that there are no buried tanks at the west end of the property, where CFS had planned to add onto the building.
Costs could vary dramatically, from as little as $7,000 to as much as $40,000 depending upon what is found.
Still, Glentzer is optimistic.
“We’ve actually accepted a bid (from a contractor), but we haven’t signed the paperwork yet,” he said. “I hate to set a timetable. … But once we do break ground we’re looking at about 120 days to wrap it up.”
Marion architect Michael Halstead has drawn up plans for the renovation and transformation of the building.
Eventually it will be the home for all of the local CFS programs — Head Start, WIC (Women, Infants and Children), energy assistance, blight elimination, a thrift store and Helping Hand Food Pantry — in addition to the entrepreneurship center and planned day care for the elderly. Only the weatherization program won’t be in the revamped building.
Further complicating the project has been Glentzer’s health. He was diagnosed with cancer in March and has undergone surgery and chemotherapy in the months since. Now, he’s back at work and eager to move the offices.
“We are all very impatient and anxious to get moved,” said Glentzer. “We’ve more than run out of space.”
While the Jay County building project has been slow going, CFS has remodeled its facilities in Hartford City and Huntington and is soon to take on a building project in Decatur.
CFS serves Jay, Blackford, Huntington, Wells, Adams and Randolph counties. It employs about 140 and has a staffed office in each of the counties served, though the Jay County office is the headquarters.