City facing maintenance issues at Chamber building

SIDNEY -- The City of Sidney is facing a repair bill for the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce building.

Sidney's Chief Building Official Marshall Hall updated the Sidney City Council February 27 on the condition of the Chamber building. Hall said the City owns the building.  He told the city council since the City owns the building, the City is responsible for its upkeep. 

He provided a list of repairs that he said need addressed within the next year. The list includes re-pointing the brick, specifically the front entrance brick at the stairs; gutters around the entire building; concrete sidewalk on the east side has pulled away fro the building and sunk; regrading the east side of the building and adding a swale; water has leaked into the east side of the basement, ruining the basement bathroom finishes, including the wall texture and paint; and the building exterior needs to be cleaned and repainted. 

"It is a city-owned building and therefore we are charged with its upkeep and maintenance. This building is, is in need of some TLC. A number of things need to be done, and pretty quickly, in my opinion. The brick, at the entrance, needs to be re-pointed. It's bad enough where if it goes a lot further, bricks are going to start falling out. The building needs gutters all the way around because all that water is just dripping back onto the building, getting behind the paint and ruining the grout, and/or brick. Slowly, but surely. That's not a huge imminent deal right now," Hall said.

He said gutters are of high priority to keep water from causing more damage.

No action was taken. Hall met with the city council to inform the of the upcoming project.

According to the historic account on TravelStorys, Sidney began to establish a public library long before it was constructed in 1914. The effort started in 1903 when a committee was organized to create a reading room at the Y.M.C.A. The Sidney Women's Club and the Y.M.C.A. collected money to pay for the books.

Volunteers operated the reading room, which eventually housed over 1,200 books. A decade later, the Sidney Women's Club applied for a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to build a proper library. Local businessman A.K. Greenlee donated the land for the building, and the Sidney Village Board passed a resolution to call for a mill levy ensuring continuing support for the library. Local nonprofit groups raised additional funds by holding bazaars, bake sales, dances and other events.

The City of Sidney was awarded $6,500 by the Carnegie Foundation for construction of the building. The library was completed in 1914 and began serving residents in 1917. The building also functioned as a polling place in local elections and served as temporary school classrooms in 1918. The library served Sidney until 1965, when a new regional library opened. The Carnegie Library then became the home of the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce.