During closing comments at a regular Three Rivers City Commission meeting Monday, City Manager Joe Bippus said the Three Rivers Woman’s Club (TRWC) is seeking alternatives to its current space in the Carnegie Building, which it shares with the Carnegie Center for the Arts (CCA). The City currently owns the building but leases it to TRWC, which subleases it to the CCA. Earlier this year, the CCA and the city entered into a Buy-Sell Agreement that set initial terms for the CCA to buy the building.

Included in those terms was an agreement that the CCA and TRWC work out a mutually agreeable lease whereby TRWC could continue to use part of the building as its headquarters. However, the two parties have had difficulty arriving at an agreement due to conflicts over access to the building. Currently, the TRWC only has access to the building when it is open or when it is able to request access from the CCA’s Executive Director, Donna Grubbs. The CCA would like to continue that arrangement, but TRWC would like to have its own key for access.

Although City Commissioners have directed the CCA to find a mutually agreeable solution with the TRWC at recent meeting this summer and fall, Bippus said TRWC Attorney Steve Glista contacted him late Monday afternoon and said the TRWC has voted down a proposed lease agreement put forth by the CCA. Instead, the TRWC would like to terminate its current lease with the city, be excused from any legal liability extending from that termination, and have 60 days to find a new location.

City Attorney J. Patrick O’Malley said the change would require revision of the Buy-Sell Agreement, since it contained an express provision requiring the CCA to establish an agreeable lease with the TRWC. O’Malley also said he needed time to review the proposed lease termination but would be able to have both items prepared in time for the City’s Commissions & Boards Collaborative and Organizational Meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. next Monday, November 9.

TRWC has been tied up with the building for more than 40 years. The CCA was founded by the TRWC after the Three Rivers Public Library moved out of the building to its last location on West Michigan Avenue more than four decades ago. TRWC members advocated to save the building and raised funds for its rehabilitation. They then founded the CCA in order to provide the building with a community-oriented use.

The proposed sale of the building comes at a time when the building is in critical need of repairs that could potentially cost several hundred thousand dollars. In previous meetings, Bippus said the city has no need or use for the building, and Grubbs said the CCA would be willing to fund the repairs once it owns the building outright.

In comments to Watershed Voice following Monday’s City Commission meeting, TRWC Mary K. Todd said the decision allows the CCA to proceed with the repairs and provides closure to the TRWC membership. “The Woman’s Club cares very much about the building,” Todd said. “We don’t want to see it deteriorate any further.” Taking the lease off the table, she said, allows all parties to move forward. “We have a history with the building,” Todd said, “but the building is not who we are. We are a group that does things for our community and is active in our community.”

Todd said the organization has had conversations with other entities about possible spaces for a new location, but there are no clear leads yet. When asked, Todd said she did not believe TRWC was offered an opportunity to purchase the Carnegie Building as the primary leaseholder, but was not certain since she was not yet president when the process began. Todd said she did not know if the TRWC would have considered purchasing the building had the opportunity come up.

Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.