Mills Building progress draws questions

    The Mills Seed Building has not been a topic of discussion at the Washington City Council since the building was moved to North Iowa Avenue in late February, but it was Wednesday. At Wednesday?s council meeting, councilor Mike Roth said too little progress has been made on the building since its move and that it may even be a danger to public safety. 

    ?In late February, we moved the Mills Building from North Seventh Avenue to North Iowa Avenue,? began Roth. ?Since that time, I?ve seen a minimal amount of work done to it. That building has just sat there. By the way, I was against this whole project to start with. That building has sat there for six months and hardly anything has been done to it.?

    The building is owned by Washington resident Jeremy Patterson, who is responsible for moving the building to its current location. Roth was one of two councilors (the other was Karen Wilson-Johnson) who voted against giving Patterson an upfront grant of $40,000 to move the building in February, which would have come out of future property taxes. Even though that vote passed 3-2, the grant was never given because the ordinance to establish a TIF district on the property was never approved.

    The final steel beam that once supported the structure was removed Thursday morning. Traffic on North Iowa Avenue was blocked to allow workers to pull the beams out with heavy construction equipment. The first of the four beams was removed last week, and the other three were taken out in the last two days. Roth recognized this was progress but remarked it was the only progress he had seen in almost half a year.  

    ?There are still holes in the foundation,? said Roth. ?It still has not been backfilled. There are still holes in the windows. There are weeds around the building. It is a nuisance. Therefore, I?m asking the fire department to do a fire inspection immediately and give us a report on Aug. 18.?

    Roth drafted a formal request to the fire department and the zoning administrator to inspect the building and report to the council at its next meeting. Roth stated in the letter that the purpose of the inspections is to determine if the structure is a fire hazard and a dangerous building. He passed out copies of the request to the rest of the council at the meeting.

    In the letter, Roth wrote, ?There are serious concerns about this building being a fire hazard, and [about] the safety of the residents and businesses that are located nearby.?   

For the full story, see the Aug. 5 edition of The Washington Evening Journal