To preserve or not to preserve, that is the question for Main Street Thermopolis

THERMOPOLIS – Local and state officials toured an abandoned Thermopolis building to begin the process of determining its fate.

Wednesday morning members of the community representing Main Street Thermopolis, the town council, Hot Springs County Commissioners, local media and downtown building owners along with Linda Klinck of Wyoming Main Street and Linda Kiisk of the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office met at an abandoned historic building at 518 Arapahoe in Thermopolis to tour the building, braving mold, mildew and possible animal encounters, to gauge its structural integrity before deciding what the buildings fate will be.

The building, built in 1917 and last used as a furniture warehouse for Fair Deal Furniture, has been abandoned for an unknown number of years and the current owners have agreed to donate the building to Main Street Thermopolis.

"We are just making sure that the building is something that we want to take on," Thermopolis Hot Springs Economic Development Company CEO and Main Street Thermopolis Board member Amanda Moeller said. "If it's good to go, which we hope it is, we want to keep the building, it was built in 1917. There is specific money set aside for main street organizations to do projects just like this and it's in our main street district," she added.

Moeller stated that the building has been derelict and continues to deteriorate and the damage is starting to encroach on the adjacent buildings. She stated that somebody needs to take responsibility for it before it falls or burns down.

Kiisk during the tour explained the requirements needed to preserve the historic integrity and pointed out not so obvious structural damage such as sagging beams, water damage, roof damage and undersized rafters which are insufficient for the weight on it. She also stated that to really know what they were dealing with, the decomposing contents would need to be cleaned out. "You have to have it cleaned up in order to see what's wrong with it basically. It's like a wound; you have to clean all the blood off first. Then you can really look at the condition of the floor and the walls and the ceiling," she said.

Due to the abundance of molds of numerous kinds, standing water and broken glass Kiisk advised that special precautions would be needed to clean the building and mentioned hazardous material suits.

If Main Street Thermopolis decides to take the building on, they will have more to worry about than the mold, structural issues and refurbishing. They will have to worry about liens on the building, taxes and other financial issues. Moeller stated that the buildings original owners more or less left town, abandoned the building and reneged on their mortgage. The building was foreclosed on and there are some issues with the bank. People have picked it up in tax sales and then not wanted the building. "It's a financial nightmare for the county treasurer," she said.

Moeller has started the ball rolling in regards to the financial nightmare in order to be able to afford taking on the building. "I've been in contact with the county treasurer, county attorney, the bank that handled the foreclosure, the town of Thermopolis starting the process because we would need the sidewalk liens waived, we can't take that on," Moeller stated. "It's really a whole knot of issues, but when you start untangling it, you have to start somewhere," she added.

The buildings fate is up in the air at this point. Main Street Thermopolis will receive a summary report from Kiisk in a couple weeks, which will be the topic of discussion during the April 20, Main Street Thermopolis meeting.