Since an early-morning fire destroyed Swim’s Sports earlier this year, the future of the historic brick building has been up in the air.
Fire crews from several departments descended upon the building, owned by Doug Swim, during the early hours of May 11 only to find it was a total loss after hours battling flames.
“The insurance company had sent a structural engineer to check it out who deemed the building unsafe and pretty much said that it needed to be demolished as soon as possible,” said Swim.
However, since the building is listed on the National Register of Historical Places, the project got delayed and a second structural engineer was sent to assess the damage.
“When the insurance company sent a second structural engineer, they told me that there would be an avenue to save the building. We could have it repaired if enough money was there to spend,” explained Swim, who was happy to hear there was a possibility to keep the downtown district in tact.
“It’s a very old building, probably near 100 years old, and it’s built so unique. There are some pretty neat things about it that add to the ambiance that would never be done in new construction today,” said Swim. “I’ve lived [in Oskaloosa] my whole life, and this building has been here the whole time, so I guess that I’m just used to it being here. Things just wouldn’t be the same without it.”
After learning there was a possibility for the building to be restored, Swim began looking into the future.
“The Oskaloosa Downtown Development group said they would like to attempt to do whatever it takes to keep it here, and I agreed with them,” he said.
Swim plans to deed the building to the group as well as provide a contribution toward the restoration process in lieu of the demolition expenses
he would have otherwise paid out.
Although the process is not finalized, Swim says he is in the process of “moving forward” down this avenue and further into the future of downtown.
“As a Main Street [organization], we want to salvage the building and will do everything we can to do that,” said Main Street Director Karen Hafner.
“These are good things that we are trying to help [Swim] accomplish, but they are not sure things right now.”
According to Swim, the process is in the beginning stages and there is no definite completion timeline.
Story provided by The Oskaloosa Herald
