Planning Commission gives OK to Advance site plan

The next hurdle for rebuilding the Advance building at the corner of Third and Erie was cleared Monday. By unanimous vote of the Rogers City Planning Commission, Richard Lamb, publisher of Presque Isle Newspapers, gained approval of the site plan for the new Advance building. Jerry Fleming, of Fleming Builders, general contractor for the project, and Lamb appeared at a special meeting of the Planning Commission Monday and received the go-ahead to get started on the project. Fleming and Lamb answered questions by committee members on parking, drainage, green space, and nautical motif to the satisfaction of the commission.

The proposed building will be much smaller than the building destroyed by fire three months ago. Plans call for the new building to be a one-story office occupying approximately 2,500 square feet, a contrast to the two-story, 6,500 square feet structure now but a memory after the February 12 fire.

?WE HAD a huge building, but we used only about one-third of it. Over the years the newspaper business has changed; so many bulky pieces of equipment they used to make a newspaper in the past are not necessary anymore. The new office will be laid out more efficiently and have room for our photo studio, which has become a big part of our business,? Lamb said. Since the new building will go in the footprint of the old building, and the old building was destroyed by fire, the new building is grandfathered in under several zoning issues. Approval by the Planning Commission means work on the foundation can begin. Lamb is hoping for a late fall move-in date at the new place.

The new building will house the offices of Presque Isle Newspapers, publishers of the Presque Isle County Advance, the Onaway Outlook, and PIAdvance.com, the Internet version of the newspapers. The newspaper company has been operating out of rented space in an of

fice adjacent to J and L Camera and Electronics, at 141 West Erie Street. The office-studio of Jeff Hopp, photographer, was made available by Hopp the day of the fire which changed the face of the downtown area.

THE NEWSPAPER used Lamb?s laptop computer, which he had at home, and three borrowed computers to produce both the Advance and the Outlook the week of the fire. Both newspapers came out on time just three days after the fire destroyed virtually everything in the 130-year old building. The headline of the Advance said it all about determination of the Advance staff: ?Fire destroys buildings, but not spirit.

Big D?s Pizza, located immediately south of the Advance building, and sharing a common wall, was also destroyed in the fire. Darrin and Milanne Darga, owners of Big D?s, bought the former Little Caesar?s/Spicy Bob?s on the corner of Third and West Michigan, and hope to be selling pizza and baked goods in early June. They reportedly sold their lot to Paul Campbell, owner of the Painted Lady, choosing to move to a new location, rather than rebuild. The owners of the Painted Lady building, which also suffered damages in the fire, are operating their business at a Third Street location while repairs are being made at their building.

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