By Jason Jump
Kingman Leader Courier – August 29, 2013
Submitted by Newz Group Clipping Service – September 25, 2013
A partial roof collapse last Friday on the building housing the Kingman Humane Society’s 2nd Chance thrift store has the board scrambling to regroup.
President of the Humane Society board Tamara Simpson said while this is a setback for the newly reorganized group, her board members are looking at this as an opportunity to start with a fresh slate.
“Everything so far up to this point has been a positive influence,” Simpson said of the group’s restructuring process. “All of our new board members are positive and gung-ho. We’re motivated to take the (thrift) shop, as well as the Humane Society and put it on a positive track and expand it.
“We do not have intentions of stopping. We intend to re-open in a new location and start from scratch and basically on a whole new sheet of paper.”
Simpson said the process that eventually led to the partially collapsed roof started back on August 15 when the chimney fell over onto the roof causing damage that eventually allowed rain waters to flood the back portion of the building.
A cleanup company was contacted to take care of the water that had accumulated. Once their work began Simpson said she started to see the north wall starting to bow. A few days later cracks in the brick wall could be seen.
The roof collapse did cause damage to the building to the north where the Oil and Wind Room was located. It is thought that some damage could have also occurred to the building to the south of the thrift store which the Nu 2 U thrift store uses as a processing center.
All three businesses are currently closed as insurance personnel assess the damage.
Tom Archer, with the city’s building and zoning department, said the collapse is in the hands of the owners of the three buildings at this point. He said the city will give the owners time to work with their insurance companies to come up with solutions.
Simpson said the Humane Society was already looking for a new place to go even before the roof caved in on their store. She and another volunteer had made plans to return to the store on Saturday morning to start packing after they had spent much of the morning in the building on Friday.
The store’s content is all but a loss for the group as well, according to Simpson. She said that 50-75 percent are definitely not salvageable. She said there is a possibility the contents in the very front of the store could be saved if the group is allowed back into the building at some point.
Simpson said a disaster relief fund has been set up at Citizens Bank of Kansas, where those wishing to help the Humane Society regroup can make monetary donations.
Simpson asked residents to hold off on physical donations at this point, because there was simply nowhere for the donations to be stored.
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