Eyesore no more?

      Donna Essary's father started working at the old Iowa Malleable foundry when he was 16.

      So did her husband, who worked at Iowa Malleable for 42 years.

      Essary has lived across the street from Iowa Malleable, at the corner of Ninth Street and Kirkwood Avenue, for 36 years. Before that she lived in a house behind the foundry, where she and her four sons were all born.

      Iowa Malleable was a big part of her life, much like it served as the livelihood of many Fairfield families for a century. But now all that's left is an empty shell.

      A forbidding chain-link fence encircles the building. Most of the windows have been smashed, jagged glass framing holes that reveal only darkness inside.

      "It kept a lot of families going," Essary, 72, recalled of Iowa Malleable in its heyday.

      "It is sad to look out there every day and see that," she said, looking out at the derelict building across from her front door. "I imagine I know as many people as anybody that worked there over the years."

      Ten years later, plans are finally in the works to do something with the Iowa Malleable property.

      But getting there has been a slow and complicated process.

* * * * *

      When Iowa Malleable went bankrupt, its buildings and the 13 acres they sit on had no owner and no one to claim responsibility for taking care of its many problems.

      "When a corporation goes into total liquidation, it actually dissolves, so to speak," explained Fairfield Economic Development Association president Dave Reiff. "There's no owner except those of us who come along with a sense of need ? that something has to be done here or this will sit here for decades."

      After the foundry closed down for good, salvage people hired by Iowa Malleable's creditors came in and took everything of value. Equipment was removed, light bulbs were unscrewed, and even the wires were ripped from the walls.

      Vandals did their share to contribute to Iowa Malleable's decay, marking the walls with spray paint and littering the floors with trash. There was even evidence, Reiff said, that someone had been sleeping in the building.

            For the complete story, read the July 22 Fairfield Ledger.