The HUBBUB location at 505 N. Tower Ave. in Centralia has been fenced off since a car crashed through the front window in May 2017. Building owner Rebecca Staebler hopes to have the sidewalk cleared within the next few weeks as she continues considering her options for repair and renovation.
The HUBBUB location at 505 N. Tower Ave. in Centralia has been fenced off since a car crashed through the front window in May 2017. Building owner Rebecca Staebler hopes to have the sidewalk cleared within the next few weeks as she continues considering her options for repair and renovation.
The HUBBUB location at 505 N. Tower Ave. in Centralia has been fenced off since a car crashed through the front window in May 2017. Building owner Rebecca Staebler hopes to have the sidewalk cleared within the next few weeks as she continues considering her options for repair and renovation.
It will have been two years next month since a man drove his car through the front of the HUBBUB store at 505 N. Tower Ave. in Centralia.
Building owner and Centralia City Councilor Rebecca Staebler quickly moved the shop to a pop-up location a couple blocks down Tower Avenue, but has been at the temporary location for much longer than anyone anticipated.
“I know it seems like nothing has been going on there these many months, but rest assured that’s not the case,” Staebler said at a recent city council meeting. “I’ve been slow to provide updates, because it’s been slower than watching paint dry and more frustrating than you can imagine. I wish I could say that restoration work is imminent, but there are still a couple more hurdles to navigate.”
One barrier she and city officials hope will soon be removed is the fencing that blocks off the sidewalk in front of the building. Centralia residents have voiced their concerns about lack of pedestrian access and the safety of those less mobile everywhere from morning radio shows to the phone lines of city hall and The Chronicle.
Staebler said Monday she hoped to be able to open the sidewalk within the next few weeks and that she had a meeting scheduled later that day where she’d hopefully learn more details. Centralia City Manager Rob Hill said the city has been meeting with Staebler on a weekly basis for the past few months in hopes of finding a way to spur the process along.
“We thought she had it a couple of months ago,” Hill said. “A contractor came in and we thought, ‘here we go,’ but then he backed out, which set everything back again. I know she’s trying because she’s certainly getting, everyone is getting a lot of pressure to get it back open. Everyone wants it back open.”
Hill agreed with complainants that the option pedestrians have of crossing the street to go around the building before doubling back is not ideal for anyone involved. Safety concerns are the primary reason the sidewalk has stayed blocked off for as long as it has, he said, referencing damage to one of the front corners of the brick building that is held up currently by a temporary brace.
“Typically, structural issues don’t affect the right of way,” Hill said. “Because this building is right up on the sidewalk, you have an unsafe situation there any way you slice it. What we’ve been pushing is just to do demolition to the point the building is stable, then open up the sidewalk. However long it takes to get the building repaired or remodeled, whatever she wants to do, we want to do whatever we can to help get someone in there working on it, and it’s not because she’s on the city council. We would do that for anyone in her situation. I think it’s been longer than anyone ever imagined it would go on. I think the timeline kind of snuck up on everybody. It’s just the perfect storm of all those issues, and here we are.”
Staebler implored members of the public when she addressed the issue during a council meeting last month to contact her with their lingering concerns and questions. She can be reached at 360-269-0909 or rstaebler@cityofcentralia.com.
