ST. MARYS — Mayor Patrick McGowan stood before the abandoned KMart store on Celina Road using his hands to elaborate the plans for the property as his eyes stared into a long-awaited future where the blighted area because useful again.
Cash registers, shelves, aisle signs and even the tile was removed long ago. The acrid scent of mold and musky rodent scent has replaced the filtered, air conditioned atmosphere of an operational retail store. Classic pop and rock music playing over the intercom has been replaced by the constant chirp and scraping claws of birds in the ceiling.
McGowan said after a Community Development Block Grant is approved and the $500,000 they need for the project comes in, the city will tear down the gutted KMart building. The city plans to also tear up the eroded, potted parking lot and extending Celina Road through the lot and building a number of commercial lots where the store and parking lot used to be.
The store has been a worsening eyesore since it closed down more than a decade ago, said McGowan.
“The city bought it about a year ago,” he said. “It was a blighted area.”
The city purchased the property almost a year ago from Kurt McCullough, who allowed people to use the building for storage, McGowan said. After purchasing the building, warnings were sent to the people with property in the building telling them to take that property out in nine months or it would be sold or taken to the dump.
Barrels and boxes of powder coating rest on pallets scattered throughout the building. An old Lincoln car is parked against the back wall. Boats and jet skis are scattered around the building, along with a motorcycle and an assortment of chairs, furniture, refrigerators and a freezer.
“It’s going to be sold off on GovDeals.com or go to the dump,” McGowan said as he picked his way around the remaining stored items. “These people have been fairly warned about that.”
McGowan said the city will be ready to begin public bidding on the demolition project in a couple of weeks, as soon as the grant money is approved.
“We just can’t wait any longer for someone in the private sector to step in and do it,” McGowan said. “We had to do it ourselves. Instead of a blight, it will be an asset to the community.”
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