Washington Goodwill store remains closed

The Goodwill store in Washington has been shuttered since July.

Goodwill of the Heartland has offered no new information regarding when the store will reopen, but a store representative says it will reopen.

'There's no change in our messaging,” Brent Watkins, creative services manager for Iowa City-based Goodwill of the Heartland, said Wednesday. 'There is no immediate timeline for when it will reopen.”

When the store was closed in July, Goodwill officials said that the plan was to reopen in September.

Goodwill of the Heartland operates several Goodwill locations throughout eastern Iowa, including Washington, Fairfield, Muscatine, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

All of the Goodwill of the Heartland stores, except for Washington, have reopened for business.

Watkins said that uncertainty with COVID-19 pandemic has held up reopening the Washington location.

'It's a logistical issue right now,” he said. 'We have had to reallocate our resources as part of our logistics and organizational needs.”

'With the uncertainty of the pandemic, we can't make any commitments about reopening at this time.”

While there is no clear plan about reopening the Washington store, there are also no plans to close it permanently.

'It will reopen,” Watkins said. 'It will reopen when we are able to do so.”

Watkins said that he understands and appreciates the concerns the community has expressed about the future of the store.

'I know it's difficult for people to understand right now,” he said. 'The pandemic has impacted our operation in many different ways.”