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Main Street Willow Springs raising funds to save one of city’s oldest buildings

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The Main Street organization in Willow Springs continues its fundraising efforts to preserve and improve the historic building at the corner of Main and Center streets. 

Board member of Main Street Willow Springs, Jeff Conger, addressed Willow Springs aldermen at their regular monthly meeting to give a brief history and answer questions about the status of the building, one of the city's oldest. 

Conger explained the building has been a public safety hazard since Main Street Willow Springs took ownership of the building in 2020. He said the organization purchased the building and obtained a repair bid of $350,000 from Base Construction in Springfield. 

While the group sought grants from numerous sources to repair the deteriorating building, Conger said they could not secure funds. 

“We began to find out a lot of that grant money was tied up with COVID-19,” said Conger. “It kind of all just disappeared and went into COVID-19 relief items.”

However, he told the council, the group recently received private donations of $75,000 and $1,000 for a total building fund of between $80,000 and $85,000. 

The nonprofit group, Main Street Willow Springs, also started a GoFundMe page to continue fundraising for the project. The group is also having a banner made to put on the side of the building to spread awareness.

Conger said Main Street is also working with Blake Browne of Property Services of Missouri to repair the wall and take pressure off the roof to prevent a complete roof collapse if the wall ever falls. 

Browne was the owner of another historic building in downtown Willow Spring that once housed the Curtis Department Store. That building had been scheduled for demolition in the summer of 2021, but collapsed before that could happen, in March.

The nonprofit received a $22,000 bid from Chad Hollis, of Hollis Roofing & Restoration, to repair the roof, which would take place after the repair of the wall, Conger said. 

In response to aldermen’s questions, Conger confirmed that Main Street Willow Springs has liability insurance if the building ever collapses. 

Conger told Alderwoman Kim Rich the group does not have a timeline for the building’s needed repairs, but hopes to have something to report to the council before its next meeting June 20. 

Conger stressed to council members that Main Street Willow Springs is at a point where if the building is going to be preserved anytime soon, it will have to be through donations. 

“As I told council last time, what we are trying to get out to people and get people to understand, is if that building was to come down, we are looking at an eighth of what we consider Main Street,” Conger said.

“I realize Main Street is big, but we consider Main Street basically from Center Street to what is downhill from the old Curtis building,” he explained. “If you broke that down, an eighth of our Main Street would be gone. It would be a big hole to match the hole on the other side, so it would just be a bigger hole.”

The city of Willow Springs had contracted and paid for an evaluation of the building’s condition in December 2019 to ensure the building didn’t pose a threat to public safety after part of the roof was blown off in a wind storm and debris ended up in Main Street.

Allgeier, Martin and Associates, Inc., out of Joplin, conducted the assessment of the two-story building built in the 1890s and, in 2020, recommended the city repair the building as soon as possible or demolish it. 

According to Allgeier, Martin and Associates’ structural assessment of the building, the masonry wall is at risk and poses a significant danger to the general public should it collapse. 

“If repairs are not made soon, collapse or partial collapse is probable,” Allgeier, Martin and Associates stated.

Conger said if the building was demolished, it would cost $70,000.

For more information on how to donate to support the preservation of the historic building, visit mainstreetwillowpsrings.org.

Willow Springs, Main Street Willow Springs


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