The Iowa Juvenile Home / State Training School for Girls campus in Toledo on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. Chronicle photos/John Speer

“The Juvenile Home is probably the project on my desk that stresses me out the most. It worries me the most, it’s the biggest

challenge,”

-Tama County Economic Development Director Katherine Oellendieck said in addressing the the Toledo City Council on Monday night, Oct. 14.

The Iowa Juvenile Home / State Training School for Girls, on a 27 acre campus in the near-center of Toledo, has sat vacant since being closed in Janauary of 2014.

One known proposal to take it over for a combination of mixed residential and a care center by Cedar Rapids developer Hobart Historic Restoration fell through during the closing time up to the present.

View of some of the buildings and an employee building on the Iowa Juvenile Home campus.

New State Program Outlined

Ollendieck said a new program approved by the legislature which is providing a total of $3 million each for demolition and restoration of unused state property over the next three years needs to be a focus. At the same time she said it is too late for a Toledo plan to be developed before the late November deadline for 2020 funding.

Instead, she urged for the next round of funding, “(We) need to put ourselves on notice tonight to put together people who are going to meet monthly to accomplish this, to not continue to sit on that property.”

She said representatives of the South Tama School Board took a second look at the main building on Thursday, Oct. 10. The board is considering a bond issue for a new middle school.

Upon earlier inspection it was reported school officials found the classroom space inadequate in the IJH building.

State Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) said he had been working with both the acting director of the Iowa Department of Human Services and the director of Administrative Services whose agencies oversee the IJH property.

He said he is “pushing to see if the state will consider dividing the property.”

“The biggest sticking point I see is taking on the entire 27 acres is a lot (for the city) to qualify for the program, ” Council member Darvin Graham said. ” It seems like a lot of risk to the city, it might be worth it and it might not.”

Council member Sokol said member Graham’s point was well taken and said “getting the property split up” would be to the city’s advantage.

Oellendieck also said an effort to obtain requests for previous proposals or intent for the property should be undertaken.