Generator — Summer 2023
Learn about the Columbus Public Power Building and a building restoration project in Creston.
Learn about the Columbus Public Power Building and a building restoration project in Creston.
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the VAULTon MAIN<br />
Entrepreneur infuses new life into old building<br />
Jamie Olmer was only 21 when she bought a building in<br />
her hometown of Creston.<br />
It had tar paper covering the plaster walls and sunlight<br />
shone in through the roof. Most of the boarded-up<br />
windows were broken and others were bricked over. A part<br />
of one wall had caved in and the building had significant<br />
water damage.<br />
But all she saw was potential. “I knew I had to try to save<br />
it,” she said.<br />
PURCHASING THE BUILDING<br />
Olmer was working at Mark’s Custom Woodworking<br />
in Creston in the summer of 2011. Owner Mark Korth also<br />
owned the former Citizens State Bank across the street. He<br />
bought it in 2005 when Central Valley Ag closed.<br />
He no longer had use for the building and was thinking<br />
of tearing it down.<br />
Olmer <strong>—</strong> who was studying history in college <strong>—</strong> was<br />
saddened by the thought. She had always admired the<br />
building and wished someone would use it. Her mom, Lynn<br />
Olmer and grandparents, Nancy and the late John Scheffler,<br />
were also passionate about their town’s history and knew<br />
the building was worth saving.<br />
Olmer asked Korth for the keys to get a look at the inside<br />
of the building. It was definitely in rough shape, but she<br />
decided to ask if he would be interested in selling it.<br />
“After all the years of hoping someone would use the<br />
building, standing inside it that day, I realized that I could<br />
do something about that,” she said.<br />
A year later, the keys and building were hers at a cost of<br />
$5,000. But it would have to wait a while for those muchneeded<br />
repairs. Olmer had a few more years of college.<br />
Then she traveled with the national service program<br />
AmeriCorps for three years. After that was graduate school<br />
and a then full-time job in 2020.<br />
During that time, Olmer had been researching and<br />
getting estimates for the repairs, so she knew that it was<br />
going to be an expensive project. Now that she had a steady<br />
income, it was time to get back to the building eight years<br />
after buying it.<br />
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