Rotary club moves into a new spacious home RC Dennison has bought a 100-year-old heritage building from Railroad Festival Committee for $65,000 and has done minor repairs to reflect the aspirations of the organisation.

The Dennison Rotary Club (Ohio, US – RID 6650) is moving across the street from the Dennison Depot and into a more than 100-year-old building.

Rotarian Bob Michels says the service club recently paid $65,000 to purchase the former Dreamsville Ice Cream shop at 431 Center Street from the Dennison Railroad Festival.

He says the festival committee was looking to sell off some of its assets, and the club needed a new place to host their meetings.

“The purpose of the purchase was the fact that the ladies who have prepared meals for our Rotary club at the Dennison Presbyterian Church have decided that they just can’t do that any longer.

“It’s beyond their abilities. I know it’s an aging group. We’ve been very blessed to have them as long as we have,” he says.

Michels says the festival committee agreed to knock $10,000 off their asking price because there’s a problem with water leaking into the basement.

He says they just have to get that taken care of and make a few cosmetic changes, and they’ll be able to start using the building.

“As far as the rest of the building goes, we did paint the interior already. It is in Rotary colours. It’s going to be painted outside in Rotary colours as well and get a blue awning to fit the blue and gold theme of Rotary International,” he says.

The Railroad Festival committee put that building and a second one on North Second Street on the market after announcing plans to disband after the most recent festival.

Chairman Greg DiDonato says whatever they make off the second property will be combined with the $65,000 from the Rotary and used as seed money for a new community foundation.

Meanwhile, DiDonato says they’re going to be meeting next month with some community members interested in forming a new committee to run the festival.

Source: Tusco TV