PC Council votes to vacate Clothing Closet building

In a unanimous vote, the Prairie City City Council moved to not allow occupancy in the building currently housing the PCM Clothing Closet during its monthly meeting Nov. 13. Citing safety issues with the building at 801 W. Second St., the council approved the building to be vacated by Jan. 1, 2020.

“The biggest concern that we have is the occupancy of the building in the dilapidated state that it is in,” acting city administrator Joe Bartello said. “The recommendation coming from the admin team is that we discontinue occupancy of the building and then council will need to decide what to do with the building as far as maintenance or repairs, but that would be a secondary issue.”

He said mold was the concern that was first brought before the council because of a hole in the roof. Councilwoman Diane Taylor explained the history of the city’s involvement with the Clothing Closet and how it lead her to the decision to request the removal of any entity in the building.

“I went back and made copies ofevery time this has been on the agenda,” Taylor said. “I came on the council in January 2018 and I was allowed in November 2017 to sit in on the council meeting. I did not have a packet but I take notes and one of the agenda items was: Discussion - Clothing Closet on Nov. 8, 2017. What I wrote was ‘Clothing Closet, suggested address roof.’ A council member I will not name said fix the roof or tear it down. The person went on to say it is a health hazard and it is really the best place to house the Clothing Closet and Joe was going to reach out to Christy, who at the time was doing the Clothing Closet. At that time, we didn’t have a lot of people going in the building.”

She went on the council had discussed the liability and upkeep of the building which, in general, was in poor condition including no water, heat and possible mold. The council tabled the topic to December where talks continued on a possible $2,000 repair to the roof and a staff inspection finding mold present in the building.

“Discussion was tabled again. Then it came to the point where I was on the council and I am going to confess to everybody in the room that probably the second month or so that I was on the council it came up again and I personally didn’t make the connection on the fact that we had an entity in the building that was not a city entity,” Taylor said. “I probably also looked across at Christy (Lindsay) and thought am I going to break my fellow council members heart by saying, ‘no we don’t need to pay any money for this, it sounds like we should tear it down,’ I didn’t do that, I have been a part of the problem.”

Since first starting, the Clothing Closet has expanded its reach and now serves people out of Ottumwa, Albia, Knoxville, Newton, Colfax in addition to those in our school district, Taylor said. While she believes there is a need for the organization, she would like to see it in a new, safer location.

“I think we have a lot of issues now, no heat, no water, recently they have been using electric space heaters and I am concerned somebody is going to be hurt and there will be a huge liability for the city,” Taylor said. “I also think that in the future, whether I am on the council or not, I will actively watch to make sure we don’t get ourselves in this situation again.”

Councilwoman Lindsay, who helped found the Clothing Closet, said it was never the organizers intent to stay in the location long term.

“It was just a temporary spot and it was only suppose to last for a little bit because we were trying to find somewhere else,” Lindsay said. “It was not suppose last this long.”

Taylor also addressed how the topic has trickled onto social media and how the city and council have been portrayed throughout.

“There has been a lot of negative (in social media) and many things were untrue,” Taylor said. “I would love to see the Clothing Closet succeed within our school district whether it is Prairie City, Monroe or Reasnor. I know that Christy and (councilwoman) Ann (McDonald) have been reaching out to organization and people to try to find help to have another place to have it and at this point it has not been successful.”

Further discussion on how to address the condition of the building will take place at a future meeting.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com