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Cabinet shop owners reviewing options

By Caroline Trowbridge - | Jun 13, 2001

The owners of the Cabinet Shop of Basehor continue to pick up the pieces from a May 25 fire that destroyed their downtown business.

Ken Lindsley, co-owner of the business on 155th Street in Basehor, said he’s still seeking bids from companies to level the shell of the building.

“We’re waiting on insurance, still,” Lindsley said. “It’s taken more time for that than we anticipated. Hopefully, by the end of this month, there will be progress or we’ll at least know when it’s going to happen. This is turning out to be not so simple.”

A smoky fire on the evening of May 25 destroyed the cabinet shop, but township firefighters were successful in saving both the community library, which was just inches from the cabinet shop, and a two-story home, which was about 10 feet away.

Mike Hooper, Basehor’s city codes administrator, said he’s eager for the cabinet shop building to come down. An engineer determined, Hooper said, that the walls could withstand winds up to 30 mph, but city officials are particularly concerned about the integrity of the walls because of their proximity to the house and library.

“We’re going to give the owners a little bit of time, but we’re not going to let it go into months,” Hooper said.

Cabinet shop officials had planned to move their business within a year to two lots the company owns in Tonganoxie’s Urban Hess Business Center.

That’s still the plan.

“We’re still definitely planning to come to Tonganoxie,” Lindsley said. “We don’t know if we can afford to do that as early as we had hoped or not. Our dream is still to build on lots six and seven in Urban Hess.”

But Lindsley said the company has taken a financial hit.

He estimated the fire caused more than $200,000 in damages to contents of the business and another $100,000 to the building.

“We were under-insured,” Lindsley said. “We’ll be doing well to get half.”

The shop has moved to temporary quarters at 14566 Parallel Road. But 10 of the shop’s 15 workers have been furloughed.

“It will take time before we can get everybody back,” Lindsley said.