By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
It’s been a year since fire leveled The Grainery Co. in downtown Decatur, and while plans to rebuild are on hold, they are still very much in the future.
It was a quiet Saturday, December 7 – Pearl Harbor Day, incidentally – of 2024 when an afternoon fire wiped out the First St. business.
It took Decatur firefighters, added by Preble’s volunteer FD, nearly an hour to get the fire under control.
In April of this year, Grainery co-owner Josh Franz told WZBD.com that the business would be rebuilt on its former site. In the meantime, operations are continuing in a nearby building.
When can a rebuild begin?
“We’re just waiting now,” co-owner Josh Franz recently said. “We have to get some things through the courts, then we can start rebuilding.”
How long might that be?
“I can’t tell you,” Franz replied. “I’d say at least five months yet.”
Josh is not sure how much time will be required once the rebuild is cleared to begin. A lot will depend on contractors, he explained.
Not long after the fire, the business reopened in the building across the alley, which is where the Grainery initially begin operations over 30 years ago following purchase of the Legge Elevator.
“We did our Christmas in here and we are planning on planting next spring – greenhouse or not,” Franz said.
Meanwhile, business has been good. “The community has shown us great support. We are certainly pleased by it,” Josh added.
The Grainery was launched after Josh’s parents, Marge and the late Ron Franz, purchased the Legge Elevator from George Fuelling in 1995.
The building had been used as a warehouse until the aftermath of the fire.
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