GEORGETOWN, Ind. (AP) - While town leaders discussed its future across the street, the building that housed Georgetown’s first bank sat vacant and idle aside from some equipment stored inside the structure on Monday evening.
But preservationists and a majority of the Georgetown Town Council believe there’s a future for the property, and they think the building is a key part of it. The council voted 4-1 to stave off the demolition of the structure for one year, as a committee charged with finding alternatives to razing the building will continue to meet in hopes of providing tangible options for the reuse of the property.
“This building is not structurally unsound,” Greg Sekula, southern regional director of Indiana Landmarks and a member of the committee, told the News and Tribune (https://bit.ly/Nr5Dol ).
Located at 9110 Ind. 64, the building was constructed to house Georgetown’s first bank in 1909. In recent years, it held the town hall until 2009, and has primarily been used for equipment storage since it was vacated.
There was concern among town officials that the building wasn’t safe, and could potentially collapse or suffer structural damage.
But Sekula said a team that included engineer Nathan Grimes, developer Steve Resch and architect Ron Stiller inspected the building on March 6, and they vouched for the building’s stability.
“It’s not going to fall down,” said Margaret Dean Hammersmith, a former Georgetown council member who was also appointed to the committee.
With a year to meet and research, the committee should be able to come up with some options to save the building for the council to consider, Sekula said.
There are matching grants available at the state level for historic building rehabilitations that the committee and town will explore, Council President Jerry Brock said.
Councilman Mike Mills cast the lone vote in opposition to delaying the demolition for 12 months, as he cited financial concerns with keeping the structure.
“If we don’t tear it down, where are we going to get the money to repair it,” Mills asked.
A petition with about 400 signatures of people who support saving the building was presented to the council. Brock pointed to the public support as a sign that the town may assist in restoring the property.
“If they’re asking this council to save a building, I assume they’re going to help us,” he said.
Councilwoman Kathy Haller - a fervent supporter of keeping the building - added that the council spent $150,000 to purchase its new town hall location.
“Could you imagine what $150,000 could have done to that building,” she said of the former town hall.
As for options, the committee suggested leasing or selling the property. The town could ask a nominal fee for the building in exchange for the new owner footing the costs to rehabilitate the structure, Sekula has said.
There’s an art gallery that has expressed some interest in the building, Hammersmith said Monday.
The council was in agreement that a deadline needed to be set for the establishment of a plan to restore or sell the property, thus the one-year extension of the demolition order was granted.
The lowest demolition bid received by the town to raze the building was $16,350.
No one from the public directly spoke about the old town hall, but a letter written by former Georgetown resident Richard Stiles was submitted to local media and read into the record on Monday.
Stiles emphasized the historical significance of the building in his letter.
“We are rapidly approaching the Hoosier bicentennial in 2016,” he wrote. “Shouldn’t the residents of Georgetown and the children in the school bearing the town’s name, be able to point with pride to something our forefathers built over a century ago?”
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Information from: News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind., https://www.newsandtribune.com
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