Ainsworth plans to sell building downtown

AINSWORTH — The city of Ainsworth plans to sell a building on the corner of Railroad Street downtown after public speakers at a council meeting Tuesday night signaled their interest in buying it.

The building became municipal property just last month, when the council agreed to buy it from the previous owner.

“The building was falling down in our minds, and wasn’t safe,” Council Member Jared Waters said. “The guy didn’t have the funds to fix it, and we’re tired of the mess and the people asking what’s going on with it. He wanted more time, more time, and we ended up purchasing the building.”

Waters said the city would be happy to offload the space as soon as possible, but needed some details from any interested buyer before reaching an agreement.

“As of last month we own it, and we’d love not to own it,” he said. “But it’s got to have a plan, we need a timeline … we just kind of want to get rid of it, but we want to make sure something happens with it, within maybe a year or so, so we don’t have to buy it again.”

The city is considering some options to help fund any renovations to the building downtown, which is currently dilapidated, legally declared “unsafe to occupy.”

WEDG Director Mary Audia said available funds would depend on the building’s new use.

“For housing uses … it depends on what kind of demographic you’re going to have in that building,” she said. “If you convert to housing and it’s a lower-middle income housing clientele you want in there, there’s definitely funding available for that. If it’s going to be veterans, there’s funding possibilities for that, so I was going to see what you guys were thinking, and hopefully we can pair some funding sources to that.”

Housing does look like the likely purpose for the structure on 212 Railroad Street, according to interested potential buyers at the meeting.

“I was going to turn it into (two) apartments,” said Zack Morrison, one such interested party. “It’d basically be a big bedroom with a nice kitchen. There’s two points of entrance, one in the front and one in the back … you’ve got parking on two sides.”

Still, funding opportunities are limited, competitive, and often come with delays. City Clerk Cheryl Smith said that might be too many hoops to jump through.

“There’s quite a lot that goes into that application, a lot of work that needs to be done, so it’s not just a real simple application, it’s something we’d need to get started on,” she said about state derelict building grants. “My concern is, these kinds of programs don’t move fast.”

Council Member Ron Greiner agreed that timing was a major concern.

“I feel like we’ve got to just get rid of it,” he said. “Walk away and say, ‘Goodbye,’ but have a guarantee that something’s going to be done with it.”

The city has not sold public property in recent memory. Mayor Troy McCarthy said it would need some time to take precautions.

“We will find out from the lawyer what our options are, and next meeting we’ll figure out how we need to proceed,” he said. “But yes, we want to get rid of it, we want it fixed up, rather than torn down.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com