OMRO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Omro Area Community Center is looking for a new place to call home after its lease wasn’t extended.
The city has decided to sell the building, creating some turmoil within the community.
Since 1995, 130 W. Larrabee Street has been the address of the Omro Area Community Center.
The center provides a variety of different offerings, like room rentals for parties and even Breakfast with Santa.
“We need this place,” said Angie Zeno, a volunteer.
Zeno says the community center and its people are like one big family.
“It’s not a building like one of the persons said at one of the meetings that, ‘It’s just a building; you can go elsewhere,’” said Zeno. “No, it isn’t.”
The city told the community center about possibly selling the building earlier in the year. In September, Omro gave notice it wasn’t going to renew the lease at the end of December.
The center has been renting the building from the city for $1 a month.
“We were averaging anywhere between $25,000 and $40,000 a year to maintain the building,” said Vicky Rasmussen, Omro’s city administrator.
Rasmussen says the city has paid the building’s utility and maintenance costs, besides water and the phone. She adds, the expenses don’t align with Omro’s future plans. The city ultimately decided to go forward with a master plan, which will include a new city hall.
“Part of it was to sell that building, as well as, there’s about three other buildings in the city that are in this plan,” said Rasmussen.
Jen Jordan, OACC board president, says the board presented new lease terms with the city to save its location.
“Our proposal included all of the utilities,” said Jordan. “Our initial offer said that it was going to be $1,250 a month that we were willing to put up.”
“In the lease, that is not what the lease agreement had included in it,” said Rasmussen. “We were still going to pay heating bills and everything, we were just going to get a little portion.”
Rasmussen adds the OACC has options in the meantime.
“We have a lot of other areas and spaces available,” said Rasmussen. “I know our library has a great activity room and the room to do other things.”
But Jordan says it’s not that easy.
“The library that she suggested, to be able to get into the library to rent a space, is almost impossible because it’s rented months out ahead of time,” said Jordan.
If you’d like to help the community center find a new building, click here to donate.
