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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2020)
4 Fenton: Building gets financial boost The 1926 Fen- ton Building will receive urban renewal funding. Continued from Page 1 an attitude of gratitude.” tually, production will be The city’s urban renewal moved to the building too. agency hopes a financial con- The 10,200-square-foot tribution will help make the mixed-use commercial project viable. structure has six apartments “This is an incredible build- upstairs and one ing downtown,” said downstairs but most Kevin Cronin, the of the ground floor city’s community de- will go toward the velopment director. public house. “It’s really a stimulus “There isn’t a place package for the down- like it in Warrenton,” town. God knows we said Elliott, a former need something for bartender at Bubba’s Engbretson our downtown,” City Bar & Grill. “There is a Manager Linda Eng- lot of work that needs to be bretson added. done to that building – be- Maize and Roberts asked ing a 100-year-old building. the agency Tuesday to con- … sider kicking in more funds The city has been really to help; they’d already been helpful. We definitely have approved for a $10,000 June 26, 2020 T he C olumbia P ress Below: Fran- ces and Doc Wilson, who ran the phar- macy at the corner. façade grant. City commissioners, in their role as the urban re- newal agency, agreed unan- imously to provide up to $35,000 in total financial as- sistance; the owners would be required to match every dollar spent. The urban renewal agency was set up to revitalize the downtown, using tax money collected within the urban renewal district. The building’s exterior will get an “extreme makeover by enhancing historic aspects and removing nonhistoric elements,” Cronin said. The city’s investment will provide a major boost down- town, Cronin said. Hopeful- ly, it encourages more prop- erty owners to participate in the façade grant program. The Fenton Grocery Build- ing at 60 S. Main Ave. was built by logging company owner Jake Bosshart. Maize’s grandfather worked at Fenton Grocery before opening Maize’s Red and White Store at the current site of Main Street Market. Fenton’s closed in 1956 and, during the ‘60s, the building was home to a Coast-to-Coast Hardware store. The building has much de- ferred maintenance and the roof, heating and plumbing systems must be upgraded. City Commission Mark Baldwin, a contractor, raised some concerns about how siding was installed last year. “I don’t want us to throw good money at bad, I guess,” Baldwin said. “It concerns me… is this being managed correctly?” The city’s building official did not re- quire a build- ing permit to replace the siding, Cronin told him. Because of the required Baldwin dollar match, “Our exposure is really limited here,” Cro- nin said. “But the upside is really good. It really comes down to: how do we want to spend our money to improve the economic development in the downtown?” The city manager assured commissioners the building official will stay on top of the project, as a condition of the façade grants is to get ap- proval for the materials and work that will be done.