Mills Seed building move to start Monday

    The Mills Seed Building will have a new home on North Iowa Avenue next week if everything goes as planned. Superstructure mover Jeremy Patterson is planning to relocate the Mills Seed Building from North Seventh Avenue to the lot on North Iowa Avenue where the Chamber of Commerce building once stood.

    Patterson has told city officials he plans to start moving the building Monday. He said he plans to spend three days moving the building south across the railroad tracks. On Wednesday night, he plans to park the building on Mark Redlinger?s lot in the 400 block of East Third Street. He said that he then plans to move it west on Third Street and stop between Iowa and Marion Avenues so that the building can back up into the former Chamber lot. Patterson is requesting permission from the city council to close Third Street next Thursday in the event the building has to sit on the street overnight.

    Alliant Energy recently announced that some customers will be without power who live on the streets affected by the building move. Don Peters and Don Kelchen, both of whom work as field engineers for Alliant Energy, said that 30 homes will be without power for four to five hours on Thursday, Feb. 25. Kelchen said that Alliant Energy will be able to restore power to those affected homes next Thursday night while the building sits on Third Street. 

    Peters and Kelchen said that Alliant Energy sent letters to those 30 customers last week to alert them about an upcoming power outage. They said most of the customers who would be affected live on Third Street. They said that residents who live near the building?s current location may experience a brief power outage on the day of the move. Peters remarked that residents affected by the power outage would receive further notification in the mail this week or early next week to tell them of the date of the move, because that information was not known at the time the first notice was distributed.

For the full article, see our Feb. 17 print edition.