Huntoon Dillons latest: Mayor Larry Wolgast, city officials looking for alternatives

Community leaders are awaiting word from The Kroger Co. about disposition of the Huntoon Dillons property as they begin to create a plan to deal with the potential food desert being created in the central Topeka area.

A second community forum to gather input has been scheduled for Monday from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the First Church of the Nazarene, 1010 S.W. Buchanan, according to organizer Brett Martin, vice president of community impact at United Way of Greater Topeka. Although he said this issue fits with the work of United Way, Martin is involved primarily as a citizen who lives in the Elmhurst neighborhood.

On Friday, Mayor Larry Wolgast said Dillons officials are sticking by their announced closure date of Feb. 13. The community is scrambling to make plans, he said, given the short time frame.

Wolgast said Dillons put him and other city officials in touch with the company’s real estate department to begin communicating about the property at 1400 S.W. Huntoon.

The mayor said he wants to learn whether the property is for sale or if Dillons intends to lease it, and what options may be open for the community.

“We definitely will be in touch with other retail stores, retail entities,” he said of potential ideas for using the land.

Martin, who along with small-business owner Megan Rogers is spearheading community efforts to address the lack of a grocery and pharmacy in the area, said he has put together an open letter to Dillons that is being distributed to the nine neighborhoods being affected by the closure, “seeking their cooperation in the transfer of real estate.”

“We’re not exactly sure what that looks like,” Martin said. “I have my own ideas about what that would be, but my task right now is to facilitate community conversation. Certainly, in the future, there needs to be a grocery store, there needs to be access to a pharmacy. Those are certainly two key elements going forward based on our conversations with the community.”

Wolgast and Martin both said there are examples of other nearby communities, Kansas City, Kan., for one, with successful projects in urban centers that fulfilled community needs for grocers and pharmacies.

“I suppose ideally it would be a partnership with city government, neighborhood associations and private business to provide this area with immediate needs of grocery, pharmacy, but certainly even beyond,” Martin said.

“I think the city feels a responsibility to the people living there,” Wolgast said.

In the short term, Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority will have buses at the Dillons store for three days next week with information about routes available for area residents to access nearby grocery and pharmacy stores. Those hours are Monday, 2 to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Wednesday 1 to 5 p.m.

“Our staff wants to help those who may have been within walking distance now having to navigate riding a bus to shop for food and get prescriptions filled,” said Metro general manager Susan Duffy. “To help make this transition process less painful, we will provide guidance for alternate routes that may work for them and their particular situation.”