On Tuesday, April 24, the Cook County Whole Foods Co-op voted to proceed with demolition of the current co-op building to rebuild a larger and more efficient store. One of the first questions that arose is what will happen to the four season mural on the co-op wall.
Calling it “the most exciting vote I have ever taken part in,” Alyssa Hedstrom joined six other representatives on the Cook County Whole Foods Co-op board of directors who unanimously voted to demolish the current co-op building and replace it with a much larger store.
Board members joining Hedstrom were Rick Schubert, Erik Hahn, Barb LaVigne, Jeanne Wright, Linda Harvey and Nick Vavrichek.
The vote was taken on Tuesday evening, April 24 at WTIP Radio where the board met in one of the station’s meeting rooms.
Although final plans are yet to be completed, the new store will likely be about 6,000 square feet with 3,500 feet of retail space and 2,500 feet for offices, coolers, prep area, etc.
The current store is 3,780 square feet with 1,620 feet of retail space. The new store will also be built with sustainability in mind, and Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards will be sought, although the board realized that not all of the LEED standards would be affordable in their current cost structure.
Founded in 1976, the co-op is a member owned community grocery store. As sales and membership grew, the co-op’s location moved to several different locations until settling in its current spot on the east bay of Grand Marais in 2001.
It wasn’t long before an addition was built to allow for more storage and easier access for deliveries. As sales continued to grow, the building’s deficiencies began to show. Never designed as a grocery store, the building has multiple levels, making it hard for customers and employees. The building is also not energy efficient and the roof leaks and is slowly crumbling.
Before deciding to re-build, the board looked at several spots to relocate. It wasn’t long, however, before it became apparent that it was best to keep the store right where it was.
The current plan is to temporarily relocate the business at the end of this September and move back in the spring of 2013 when the new building is finished. Although a current site has been identified for that re-location, the board wants to wait to see if it is feasible and would work for the co-op before making that announcement.
To help finance the project the board has authorized an “Owner Loan Campaign” that will hopefully raise $600,000. The co-op has $350,000 in cash reserves and will be seeking loans from the local banks and the credit union as well as from the North Country Cooperative Development Fund, which loans money to co-ops for expansion, said general manager Jennifer Stolz.
All in all it is expected to cost $2, 250,000 for the teardown, temporary relocation and rebuilding.
What about the mural?
Kelly Dupre met with the board and expressed her concern for the four-season mural that graces the north wall of the building.
Dupre, an artist and teacher and Jana Larson, an elementary education teacher at Sawtooth Mountain Elementary, came up with the idea for the mural and spent five years working with the community, parents and fourth grade classes to design and build the magnificent mural.
Dupre said that more than 250 students and more than 150 parent/adult volunteers have participated in creating the mural(s). The current eighth through 12th grade classes all worked on the project. She also cited grants and donations from individuals, local businesses and the Northland Foundation, Cook County Parent Teacher/ Teacher Association, Cook County Schools Education Foundation, Education Minnesota and more.
And she reminded the board that two of the murals have been dedicated to the remembrance of the late David Pederson and Zack Mellang.
“There are lots of folks connected to it [the mural]. So I hope we can save it,” Dupre told the board.
“We all clearly get the significance of it. It has a far reaching effect and has touched a lot of people,” said Nick Vavrichek, who added, “but there is a practical side to this as well. Our architect said we can work around it, but it will cause some difficulty. The wall is not straight and we will lose 200 to 250 square feet of space to save the wall. And the price is estimated to be $25,000 to do it right. Then we have to look at the long-term cost of upkeep to keep up the appearance of the mural. We want to make sure the mural looks good.”
Dupre responded, “In terms of maintenance, Jana and I have done the maintenance. Actually Jana has done most of it. She touches up the paint. As far as the tiles, they will last forever. Or if they don’t the work will be minimal and they will be easy to fix.”
A general contractor hired by the co-op estimated that the north wall that houses the mural needs bracing and waterproofing, along with core fill to fill the hollow pockets. The wall needs to be stabilized while the demolition phase is taking place; after that the cap flashing will be added and the wall would need to be bolted to the new wall. All in all it will cost at least $25,000 to perform this work.
Board member Barb LaVigne told Dupre, “We have been elected to do what our owners want us to do. Some of them say that they like the mural but don’t want us to spend a lot of resources to save it. If it couldn’t be saved, is it possible to do again? Or was it such a big job you don’t feel you could do it again?”
Dupre said that she couldn’t imagine doing this project again and asked the board to look into ways of saving the mural, even if that meant taking it apart in sections and then putting them back on the new wall or inside, where they would be better protected.
After much discussion the board agreed to look at hiring an art restoration expert— if it isn’t too expensive—and see what they would suggest. Board member Rick Schubert said he was headed to the Twin Cities this week and would look into finding someone in the field of art restoration who might be willing to come to Grand Marais and give their expert opinion on the possibility of saving the mural.
The board also will look at hiring a local cement contractor to give his opinion on the current state of the wall that houses the mural and see if it is even possible to save the wall.
Board member Jeanne Wright said, “This started as a partnership between the co-op and the school and we want the community to know that we will work hard to find the best solution to this dilemma.”
With that the board decided to gather information about what it will take to save the mural and any other options it can gather and present those to its members and the community in the near future.
LaVigne said, “There are many people that have a very personal and passionate connection to the mural but public opinion seems to run the gamut from save the mural ‘at any cost’ to the desire to see the co-op use its time, energy and money in other ways.”
LaVigne agreed to be the board’s liaison and work with Dupre on finding solutions to saving the mural in one way or another. All of the board members said they liked and appreciated the mural and all of the hard work that went into creating it. Suggestions included using pieces of it inside the new building if it couldn’t be saved, or to take a high-resolution picture of the mural and use that in some way inside the new store.
“If it can’t be saved, we want to at least keep the spirit of the mural. We know it means a lot to a lot of people,” said Vavrichek.
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