Ausbergers Buy Watts Building for $2,800

MEET WITH GJ HORIZONS TO DISCUSS LHA FACILITY

GRAND JUNCTION, IOWA—Bob and Joyce Ausberger, Jefferson, were the winning bidders for the T.R. Watts & Son Building at 201 East Main Street in Grand Junction this morning. Joyce Ausberger told Eye on Grand Junction the bid was $2,800. The auction was conducted by Dale Higgins Auction of Grand Junction.

The Ausbergers had met with the Grand Junction Horizons board of directors in a special board meeting late Thursday afternoon at the Grand Junction Public Library to outline the Ausbergers’ plans to use the building as a welcome center for the local chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association.

The board asked the Ausbergers about the input required of GJ Horizons and who would be in charge of renovating the building, utility costs and general upkeep. At that time the Ausbergers had yet to make their bid, so they did not have a definitive purchase cost or possible renovation and upkeep costs for the building. They did tell Horizons they were interested if the price was in the $2,000 to $3,000 range.

Horizons members and the Ausbergers discussed monthly costs for electric, water and sewer from Grand Junction Municipal Light and Water and heating costs from Black Hills Energy.

If the Ausbergers did get the winning bid, Horizons agreed to help staff the proposed LHA welcome center and discussed how the community could work to make the welcome center an integral component of revitalization of Grand Junction’s Main Street.

The local LHA had a center on Lincolnway in Jefferson, next to the Hy-Vee Drug Store, but the building is owned by Hy-Vee and the company had other uses planned for the building, so the center was closed a few years ago.

Joyce Ausberger told Horizons that a similar office in Grand Junction would be opened between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. during the heavy tourism months in spring and summer, fewer hours in the fall, and not opened at all during the coldest months of winter. The office would offer free travel information and sells maps, brochures, and other items of interest to travelers on the Lincoln Highway, in addition to serving as a gathering spot for local residents and area Lincoln Highway enthusiasts.

Horizons members shared with the Ausbergers the community’s deep history with the Lincoln and there were a number of members present whose fathers were businessmen during the Lincoln’s hey-dey in the 1950s, when it was U.S. Highway 30.

They discussed with the Ausbergers some of the local memorabilia related to the Lincoln that is available from Grand Junction residents.

The Ausbergers are long-time supporters of the Lincoln Highway on a national, state and local level. They helped save the historic original Lincoln Highway bridge just north of the Union Pacific railroad tracks that serves as key component to the historic bridges and Grand Junction Lion’s Club Tree Park just east of Grand Junction on the section of the Lincoln built in the 1920s, which replaced the original route on the north side of the tracks.

Copyright Eye on Grand Junction 2011