Friday marked a milestone for staff and supporters of the Mennonite Community Closet in North Battleford.
The store, often referred to in the community as the “Clothes Closet” because of the large number of clothing items on sale there, celebrated its 40th anniversary of operation in the city. They commenced operations in December 1975 when they opened for three days that month.
But it was also a historic day for another reason. Staff finally were able to cut the ribbon on a long-sought expansion to their operations on the 1200 block of 100th Street, where they have been located since 1999.
Their existing store was finally able to connect to an adjoining property they had acquired in 2005. That property is now part of the store where furniture, toys, and other used items are for sale.
But it had taken ten years for the Mennonite Community Closet to be able to use that property as part of their store. For years they had been frustrated repeatedly in attempts to get City approval to put a walkway in to join the two buildings.
The problems arose from changes to the City’s zoning bylaws years ago that cracked down on any new second-hand stores in the downtown C1 commercial district.
Those were aimed at stemming the proliferation of pawn shops in the downtown core. But despite their non-profit mission, the Mennonite Community Closet was caught up in the zoning red tape and was unable to expand into the adjoining building under the zoning rules.
The issue went to council a number of times, with little progress.
The best the Mennonite Community Closet could do was get approval to use the building as a warehouse. The result was staff had to frequently go outside, back and forth between the buildings, as they looked for items in the storage area.
What finally resolved the situation was the introduction and eventually approval of the new zoning bylaw and official community plan by city council in 2014. The new zoning rules provided for the Mennonite Community Closet to join the two buildings together.
Once the province gave its approval to the new official community plan, the process was relatively easy.
According to Mennonite Community Closet board chair Priscilla Epp, as soon as that approval was received Mayor Ian Hamilton phoned her to say “it’s a go. Submit your permit,” she said.
That application was made and the permit was approved in the fall. A contractor was hired to cut through the cement bricks in the wall to finally join the two buildings together.
For supporters of the Clothes Closet, the opening of the new addition was a day long in coming and allows the organization to continue its charitable efforts.
“We are a not-for-profit organization,” said Epp. “The profits we do make here go into the community.”
Treasurer Edgar Harder noted more than half a million dollars in donations had been paid out by the organization.
“We are in the community to serve the community and I think even selling things at reduced prices helps the community in themselves.”
