The City of Lisbon’s insurance provider EMC has asked that two structurally deficient barns at the Pleasant Grove Heritage Park be demolished by October.
EMC emailed the request following a visit by one of their insurance inspectors doing an inspection of the barns Feb. 22 of this year to see what it would take to get liability insurance on the barns. The barns had already been ruled as totaled following the derecho in 2020. Work had been ongoing to stabilize the barns by Curtis Blinks over the past few years, with work completed on one of the barns. The barns also suffered some damage in a storm in 2023 that impacted roofs to the barns.
EMC was also requesting that a fence be installed around the barns to keep the public out and mitigate the attractive nuisance element of the buildings.
Lisbon council member Ricky Scott made a motion after discussion to demolish the two barns if an option to save them does not see fruition by May 13. The council will also determine an action plan to possibly preserve the north barn by the October deadline. The council unanimously approved that action.
Discussion on the work to preserve barns
Blinks said he felt the work taken on one of the barns had stabilized it, but more work would need to be completed to make the barn structurally sound.
Lisbon Historic Preservation Commission member Rebecca Hess said that there is a difference between “stabilizing” and making the barns “structurally sound.”
“It would take more work to make these buildings structurally sound,” Hess said. “We were only working to stabilize these barns at the moment, doing the basic repairs to keep them protected from the elements to better preserve them until we could take more action.”
Hess said that the plan was never to allow people to attend for weddings or have kids climbing all over or around the buildings, but would be a way to highlight agriculture in Iowa.
The commission had $18,000 they were looking to spend on doing a laser scan of the barns to highlight areas and repairs that may need to be addressed in the future.
Mayor Doug O’Connor said that unless the city has a significant donation or grant come through between now and October, there is likely no chance to save two of the barns. He recommended not spending money on lasering the buildings if they are noted as needing to be torn down.
“To get all three of these barns to be structurally sound would cost $200,000 or more, and we have to have that completed by October,” O’Connor said. “We have to look at what’s best for citizens, and spending $200,000 to stabilize barns is not that. There’s also a chance for people to be injured and the city to be liable. Our hands are tied for the options as they are.
“Unless someone is willing to donate money real quick, I don’t see the chance to save two of the barns from demolishment.”
The city has spent roughly $42,315 to stabilize one of the barns, and work has been partially completed on another, with significant repairs noted when repairs were completed in the fall that would need to be addressed.
Blinks told the council that they will likely have expenses to tear down the barns, especially if they are trying to save one of them.
“They’re not going to be cheap to tear down,” Blinks said. “There’s a lot of material in these barns that people will have to get rid of.”
One of the issues is the barns were originally totaled out following the derecho. The inspection was warranted in late February as the council instructed city administrator Brandon Siggins to determine how much work would need to be completed to have them back under the city’s insurance plan.
Demolition impact
Demolishing the historic barns may have an impact on Pleasant Grove Heritage Park’s status with Silos and Smokestacks, which Lisbon was noted as an emerging site for the work to the nature park.
Council member John Bardsley said there are other agriculture focus elements in Lisbon at the moment, and if they preserve one of the barns as an example in the park, that might preserve that relationship.
Hess said that the demolition would potentially impact the historic district that Lisbon Historic Preservation Commission had applied to for the three barns to be denoted as a historical district or historic buildings.
“With two of the buildings demolished, we’d lose that historic district,” Hess said. “That would impact our ability to get grants to fix the remaining building.”
Hess said that this whole situation is reminiscent of the rigamarole former councils were faced with when it came to the historic red brick home in downtown Lisbon.
“At the time, the council kept getting advice to tear that building down, but we found another inspector who saw that the building could be saved as long as it was gutted and rebuilt,” Hess said. “That building was placed on the national historic register, received a grant and owner focused on saving it, and it’s now an attractive storefront in our downtown.”
Many members of the council noted they don’t want to destroy the barns, and want to work to preserve at least one of the historic barns if that can be done.
And as the council talked about potentially tearing down two structurally deficient barns, citizen Jennifer Donovan asked the council to consider ways that elements of the barns could be saved or repurposed for items in the park, like keeping some of the old barn boards or making tables from reclaimed wood.
O’Connor said he remembers talking to students at Lisbon Schools about the concept of nature park a few years ago, and for many of them, the maintenance of a space denoted as a nature park is something that was huge to them.
In a report the commission had a few years ago, costs for making all the barns structurally sound was between $183,000 to $274,000
Siggins was instructed to follow up with EMC Insurance to see what exact work they see needed to preserve the one barn to be saved as well.
The third barn at Pleasant Grove Heritage Park this early spring.