Moville Community Makes New Grocery A Reality
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After a year and a half without a grocery store, folks in a small Siouxland community are getting ready to load up their carts again, thanks in large part to their own generosity.
Country foods in downtown Moville was destroyed in April 2008 by an electrical fire, but even after the owners decided not to rebuild, the community decided not to give up and they footed most of the cost themselves.
The loss of Moville's only grocery store came as a blow, a blow that turned out to be a double whammy for the local economy.
"It was a big, traumatic event for the community, losing the grocery store, and then not too long after that the hardware store closed as well, which were two of our main businesses on main street," said Moville resident Jon Wilcke.
Just months after the devastation, a few town members, including Wilcke, decided to take matters into their own hands and started the Moville Community Development Association Incorporated, or McDAI.
With the generosity of their neighbors they were able to raise over $200,000 towards a new grocery store.
"[There were] barbeques, we've had 4H clubs hold deals, church groups hold events, ice cream socials and things. And we've had several people step up and give us fairly large donations," said Wilcke.
About $30,000 came from the City of Moville. The building was also donated from the owners of the old Carol's Corner store. Plus, countless materials and man hours have been donated to get the new and improved store up and running.
The new store will be run by a grocer from Kingsley, Chet Davis, who's been in the business for decades.
He expects big sales as soon as they open and for at least the first few months.
"It will taper off after the holidays but the community has been really helping us put this in and we think they'll be supporting us all the way down the line," said Davis.
Davis and his wife, Linda, have been putting a lot of elbow grease into this new store, alongside community volunteers, in preparation for a targeted October 12th opening.
Davis says he's hopeful the community will respond well to the newer, bigger, much more updated store and its new location off of Highway 20.
"We want to run a business here that they're going to be proud of and happy to come to," said the grocer.
Despite the amazing fundraising efforts, the Moville economic development team hopes Woodbury County might step up to help with some of the costs of the grocery, as well as help the town revitalize its economy with more projects in the future.
Representatives from Moville will be at tomorrow's Board of Supervisors meeting to ask for a donation to their efforts.
