528 Main St. may connect to tunnel
By Steve Dunn/Gate City Managing Editor (www.DailyGate.com)
The mystery surrounding the site of a collapsed building on Main Street grew Thursday when the Keokuk City Council was told one of the underground vaults may connect to a delivery tunnel.
During the workshop preceding the regular meeting, Mike Foley of Montrose updated the council on his findings at 528 Main St., the site of the old Green Tambourine building that collapsed last summer. Foley uses divining rods to help him locate underground artifacts and treasure.
Foley, who teaches at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, said a south vault in the second basement at the site has a cement block wall facing Main Street. The vault probably was probably connected to the Main Street delivery tunnel by a shorter tunnel, he said.
Foley also supplied a drawing of downtown Keokuk that shows the delivery tunnel running from just below First and Main streets to a distillery at 19th and Concert streets.
It would only take a couple of hours to pop out a a few of the cement blocks in the south vault to see if the tunnel actually exists, Foley told council members.
The city has given the Keokuk Historic Preservation Commission 30 days to come up with a viable plan for the site. Neither the city nor the commission has the money at this point to develop the site into a tourist attraction. Commission member Chuck Mitchell has suggested contacting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to see if it’s interested in contributing financial support. However, Foley said the Mormons don’t usually fund projects like the one at Sixth and Main streets.
At the very least, the site should be properly photographed and viewed by someone from the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office, said Kevin Kuckelman, another member of the Historic Preservation Commission. Local photographer Ed Vinson has already photographed the site for the city, Kuckelman was told.
Kuckelman also said it’s less likely that grants will be found to help develop the site as an attraction because “the site has already been bastardized.”
However, Mitchell said, “There is still plenty there to save.”
The cleanup will cost the city at least $52,000, Mayor Tom Marion pointed out.
“The $52,000 needs to be recouped and then somebody can do with the property whatever they want,” Marion said.
The property is presently owned by a Peggy Knuth of Illinois, who claims she is unable to pay for the cleanup. The city has attached a lien to the property.
Later, downtown businesswoman Carole Betts read messages left on Facebook in favor of keeping the site intact for its historical value.
Council member Mike Girard said the existing conditions at the site raise three issues: safety, drainage and stabilization.
Marion described the present conditions as “a terrible safety situation and an attractive nuisance.”
