Salvation Army needs volunteers for bath fix-ups
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on July 10, 2012 1:46 PM
Customers and donors to the Salvation Army's family thrift store might notice something different in the next few weeks. The restrooms have been closed.
Lt. Kenny Igleheart, Salvation Army commander, closed the restrooms because they are in need of repair. The Salvation Army's advisory committee of Jimmie Ford, J.B. Price and Shelby Benton is in the process of sending out letters asking community businesses, local churches and individuals to help by donating supplies and, most importantly, manpower.
"Our goal is to have a company, church or whatever adopt one of the family store's two restrooms," Igleheart said.
There is a men's restroom with a commode and urinal and a women's restroom with two commodes. And each has a wash basin.
The Salvation Army has already had the commodes donated. But it still needs paint, new wash basins and new flooring.
"The flooring is in terrible shape," Igleheart said. "We need someone to take all of the old tile up. I would love to keep it just concrete. It's much easier to keep clean that way."
The walls also need a new coat or two of paint.
"We need some labor-intensive stuff," Igleheart said. "I think the biggest part of this project will be the flooring, getting all the old flooring up.
"We need someone who's skilled at that to volunteer their time and lead a group of volunteers."
Igleheart is hoping some group, business, church or individual will adopt portions of the renovation work.
"It would be a labor of love, something someone could take pride in having done for the community," he said.
Until the renovations can be done, the restrooms will stay locked.
"Our customers can't use them," Igleheart said. "They just aren't clean, and no matter how often we clean the restrooms, they are still dirty. The cracks in the tiles are a big problem. We even took a floor buffer to the floors, but the tiles wouldn't come clean. A concrete floor that's been sealed would be much easier to maintain."
And Igleheart wants to make sure there is no asbestos in the tiles, which would pose a safety concern.
The restrooms are not only a public service to donors and patrons to the family store, but some of the local homeless people use them, too.
"We don't have a target date for getting the renovations," Igleheart said. "Hopefully the community will respond soon."