Coble buys Ash Grove City Museum building

Mama Loca’s owner purchases dilapidated building for $21,550
 
 
The Ash Grove City Museum Building, which sits next to city hall, has a new owner. Dolores Coble, co- owner of Mama Loca’s, submitted the winning bid to purchase the aging brick building from the city for the amount of $21,550, which was unveiled at the meeting of the Ash Grove Board of Aldermen on Monday, Sept. 20. Two other people also put in bids for the building: John Waterman bid $15,750, while Ronessa Williams submitted a bid of $16,000.
Building’s future unclear
At this time, it is not clear what Coble intends to do with the building. Melissa Mau, Ash Grove city clerk, said Coble “said she had a few different ideas that she was playing with,” but didn’t specify its purpose, which was requested by the city as part of the bid process.
Building was never actually a museum
The building in question was purchased by Ash Grove from Jimmy and Linda Birch in 2001; at the time it was part of a trio of buildings. Two of the buildings were torn down, and the current city hall was built where they stood. The city planned to make a museum out of the remaining building, but that plan never came to pass, and though it was called the City Museum Building, it was mainly used for storage instead.
Go Fund Me established following purchase
Coble's Sept. 20 purchase drew the ire of some, when a Go Fund Me page was established shortly thereafter, Oct. 6, to raise money for her husband Marc Schwenn, who underwent surgery Sept. 29, a surgery that was scheduled weeks prior to Coble's $21,550 building bid, for a building with no specified use.
As of press time, 82 people had donated a total of $7,700 to the page; $2,700 over its intended fundraising goal of $5,500.
Coble initially declined a request for comment on the purchase, and did not respond to further requests.