Friday, January 10, 2014

Going...Going...GONE!

The Barnard city council was accepting bids for the cafe building in Barnard, Kansas.  The city had advertised for the previous month for interested parties to purchase the building with the city reserving the right to refuse any and all bids.  Two bids were received.  One bid was for $2500 and was submitted by Gary Segal who was from Hunter.  His intention was to run it as a cafe.  It would have benefited Barnard by continuing as a restaurant.  The other bid was from Barnard city council member, Nancy Houghton, for $3000.  Nancy said she was going to use it to house her arts and crafts and possibly her baking.  She has no intention of running it as a restaurant.  The city went with coucilperson Houghton's bid.

The cafe had troubles remaining open since Betty Loy closed her cafe, Betty's Place, over a decade ago.  Since then, several had tried to run it but those efforts were plagued by arbitrary hours of operation, varying quality of food, and hospitality.  A few years ago, angel donors donated money to the city for the purchase and maintenance of the building in hopes that it would continue to be a vibrant part of community life as a restaurant.  The last tenant vacated the building about a year ago after being in business a year.  During the last part of 2013, a pipe burst causing damage and the city collected $6000 in money from the insurance company for repairs.  The city decided to keep the money and place the building up for sale as is leaving the U.S. Postal Service as the only downtown business left in Barnard.  The Cargill leased elevator continues to serve coffee and candy for the morning social crowd.

1 comment:

  1. Nancy has recently talked about the idea of hosting meals in the old cafe building. The idea being that a lunch or dinner on certain days of the month would be made. It would be like ordering the house special at any other eatery, but there would be no other meal options for that particular day. She has yet to determine the days or how often she will do them, but it is something she is wanting to do.
    The building is still in the remodeling process at this time, and so far is looking very good in my eyes.

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