Web site set up to save Uniontown buildings

The building at 103 W. Third, Uniontown, where Rebecca Sutterby would like to move her business, Sugar Creations, has been deemed unsafe by structural engineers. A Web site has been set up for contributions to save the building and two others on the square.(Submitted Photo)

A Uniontown, Kan., resident is trying to save the building she plans to put her cake decorating business in.

Award-winning cake artist Rebecca Sutterby, owner of Sugar Creations Inc., was told in late July that the old cafe on the town square which she planned to renovate for her firm had to be fixed or torn down. She also received a letter to that effect.

The building at 103 W. Third is grouped with one at 105 W. Third, which houses a drywall business, and a vacant storefront at 107 W. Third, which needs the most repair, Sutterby said.

Currently using her own kitchen, Sutterby owns the 103 W. Third structure and was in the process of trying to fix it up "when we found out our ceiling joists rest on the wall of the building next to ours. We only have three walls," she said.

An estimate to get the stone and roof work done is $75,000. To help save the structure and the others, a Web site has been set up -- http://igg.me/p/187412?a=933085. Contributions may be made through it.

"The stone masons we've talked to say they (the buildings) are fixable and very much worth fixing. It's just a matter of gathering funds to pay the stone mason and roofer," Sutterby said.

She is also in the process of trying to find out what used to be in those buildings.

"Building from scratch is not an option," Sutterby said. "It will be 10 years before I'm able to afford that."