The Budget Inn has been boarded up. Chronicle/John Speer

What was reputed to be Tama County’s first motel has fallen on hard times. The Toledo City?Council ordered the doors and windows of the closed property boarded up at the regular council meeting on Monday, Oct. 28.

Safety concerns and reports of persons and animals entering the rooms made at earlier council meetings prompted the action. Council members voted 4-0 to accept the bid of Hrabak Lumber, Toledo, to secure the three one-story motel buildings at a cost of $1,345.

That charge will be passed on to the property owner through the listing real estate agent Skogman Commercial Real Estate Services Group, Cedar Rapids, council members said. The owner is listed on the Tama County Assessor’s website as Hetal P. Rasania.

The Budget Inn, known first as the L-Ranko Motel, was the premier lodging business in the area for a number of years. Loren

Rank first opened it in the 1950s upon the rerouting of U.S. Highway 30 through Toledo from the old Lincoln Highway route through Tama. He expanded it twice building two additional sets of units.

Motel L-Ranko is shown in this postcard view during the 1960s.

The Donald McKale and Ordell Matzdorf families purchased and continued the operations for many years. It was later sold to Chan and Honsa Bahkta and then passed on to other owners.

The motel property occupies 2.5 acres and is listed for sale for $150,000 according to the Skogman Commercial website.