(03-16-2022 08:17 AM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  "Home" not "homes", right? And by home, we're talking about the former Catholic Campus Ministry house, the org that built a brand new structure a block down the street? This resident sees nothing but upgrades here.

Yes. I think it was once upon a time Catholic, then Episcopal related.

The DNR has always had an agenda stirring up residents relative to demolition of old buildings along Main (or anywhere in town for that matter).

Before the Forbes Center for the Arts was built the DNR promoted a real public kerfuffle over the purchase and demolition of the funeral home located on that site. Once upon a time Carrier was offered the chance to buy the funeral home for less than $60k (Carrier told me the asking price was $57k). But Carrier passed because he thought that was too much money.

In the run-up to acquiring the site for the Forbes Ctr. JMU had made a generous offer way over the appraised value, but the funeral home rejected the offer. Then, the funeral home got the DNR to stir-up local opposition, and ultimately screwed JMU and the Commonwealth by getting over $7 million to buy a property appraised at less than $400k.

Today, if you pass the “new” Kyger Funeral Home located on 33 East that giant complex was made possible by part of that $7 million extortion paid to acquire the property for Forbes.

I still shake my head when I recall the passion expressed by residents who thought preserving a small house built in 1912, and later converted for use as a funeral home and crematorium…in essence a place for the dying and dead…was more important to Harrisonburg than building a world-class Arts center where life and the living could be celebrated.